Chapron v. Cassaday
Chapron v. Cassaday
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
In this case, the complainants, who are judgment creditors of G. M. D. Cantrell, seek to subject an equitable estate, which has fallen to him since the rendition of their judments, to the satisfaction thereof.
The defendant Cassaday resists this claim, on the ground
This proposition the counsel for the defendant, Cassaday, ' denies, and this is the first question for our consideration. In Preston on Property, (3d part 326) it is said: “In the contemplation of a court of equity, a judgment is binding on trust estates, as on legal estates.” And again, (p. 327:) “As against trust estates, and equities of redemption, judgments afford only an equitable lien, and such interest or lien may be discharged by a purchase for a valuable consideration without notice.” Thus according to this learned author, a judgment creates a lien, which a court of equity will enforce upon equitable estates, without the issuance and return of a fi. fa. The only difference as laid down by him, in the page last quoted is, that where a judgment creates a lien upon legal estates, the judgment creditor may pursue his remedy without regard to the point of notice, and notwithstanding a bona fide sale without notice, while the purchaser of an equitable estate without notice, would take it discharged from the lien of the judgment.
So in Sugden on Vendors, (9 Ed. 616,) it is laid down, “that a judgment is' a lien in equity, and that by the first principles of a court of equity, a purchaser with notice of any incumbrance, is bound 'by it, in the same manner as the person was of whom he purchased.” See also, Tunstall vs. Trappes, 5 Cond. Ch. Rep. 123, 129, 15 Vesey 419, 4 Maddox 503. In the case of McNairy vs. Eastland, (10 Yerg. R.) this court decided that a bill might be brought by a judgment creditor, to subject the
The act of 1832, ch. 11, sec. 3, (Car. & Nic. 223,) provides, that: “A judgment or execution at law, shall not bind equitable interest in real estate or other property, or legal or equitable interest in stock, or choses in action, unless a memorandum of said judgment, stating the amount and daté thereof, with the names of the p'arties, be registered in the register’s office of the
But in relation to after acquired equitable estates, the rule of construction of this statute must be the same-as the one we have indicated in relation to the act of 1831, applicable to legal estates. If the judgment be registered in sixty days after the lands are acquired, and the bill be filed in ten days after the return of an execution unsatisfied, we think it would give to the prior judgment a superior lien to a subsequent one, and one that might be enforced against a purchaser with notice of such judgment. It cannot be assumed, that because the case of a judgment rendered more than sixty days before the equitable title to the estate was acquired by the debtor, is not within the words of this act, such case is not to be operated upon by the act at all, and the lien is to continue without limitation, as though no statute existed on the subject. The act expressly declares, that a judgment at law shall not bind equitable interest in real estate, unless the same be registered,- and the bill be filed within the time prescribed. Now, although the case of a judgment more than sixty days before the estate comes to the debtor, is not within the words of the act, so as to give the creditor the lien therein, conferred; yet it is within the prohibitory words, so as to deprive him of the lien. If, therefore, such judgment becomes a lien upon such estate at all, it must be by an equitable construction of the statute; and in construing the
Independently of this statute, a bona fide purchaser, without notice, would hold an equitable estate against a judgment creditor of the vendor. The judgment bound the equitable interest against those purchasers, only, who had notice of its existence. But the statute comes with a prohibition of the rule that previously prevailed. It says the judgment shall not bind equitable estates, unless the judgment be registered and the bill filed in the time prescribed. Any creditor or purchaser who may acquire the estate can now resist the claim of a prior judgment creditor who has not complied with the statute.
We think, therefore, that the defendant, Casseday, himself being a judgment creditor, and having a right to register his judgment, and file his bill to subject this interest to the payment of his debt, had a right to receive the assignment in satisfaction of his judgment, and having thus acquired the estate, giving its full value, he is entitled to hold it in preference to older judgment creditors, who have failed to adopt the proceedings required by the act of assembly without being required to show he purchased without notice of the complainants’ judgment.
Let the decree be reversed, and the bill dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Chapron & Nidelete at als. v. Cassadays.
- Status
- Published