Moseby v. Fleck
Moseby v. Fleck
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This case was tried on the theory that a purchaser of land at a sheriff’s sale acquires, as against a prior vendee under a voluntary conveyance in fraud of creditors, simply a right to contest the latter’s title, and nothing more. The authorities cited give no support to this view: Hoffman’s App., 44 Pa. 95, decided merely that where the owner of land incumbered with liens conveys in fraud of creditors, and the land is sold by the sheriff under a judgment subsequently obtained, the liens existing before the conveyance remain undivested, and are therefore not payable out of the proceeds of the sale. It is there distinctly said that the earlier cases, Byrod’s App., 31 Pa. 241, and Fisher’s App., 33 Pa. 294, where this doctrine was first announced, were so ruled in order to prevent the mischief of a divestiture of the liens by a sale under which the debtor’s deed had rendered it uncertain whether the purchaser would obtain any title; that because of this uncertainty it was thought necessary to declare that such purchaser holds subject to liens prior to the conveyance. The case is no sense derogates anything from the estate that passes to the sheriff’s vendee; but, on the other hand, contains a clear recognition that what does pass in such case is the debtor’s
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- Sheriff’s sale — Real estate — Rights of purchaser — Prior conveyance in fraud of creditors — Right of possession. A purchaser of laud at a sheriff’s sale acquires, as against a prior vendee under a voluntary conveyance in fraud of creditors, more than a mere right to contest the latter’s title. Such a purchaser acquires all that he would acquire had no fraudulent conveyance been made, except that he takes the estate incumbered by prior existing liens; in other words, he succeeds to every right that his fraudulent debtor had in the land, and this includes, of course, the right of possession. If he is evicted from possession which he has peaceably acquired by a person claiming -under the fraudulent conveyance, he may recover damages from the wrongdoer for the injuries sustained.