Lee v. Crossna
Lee v. Crossna
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
David Looney made two bills single, payable to one Andrew Scott, the one for $25, the other for $30, and they were assigned by Scott to George Crossna, who brought two separate suits thereon, before a justice of the peace, against Looney and Scott; Stephen Lee became the surety for the stay of the execution upon both judgments, but whether at the instance and for the benefit of Looney only, or of both defendants, does not appear from the record. Executions upon both judgments issued against Looney and Lee, without naming Scott, and no personal property being found, were levied upon a tract of land of which Lee had been in possession for sixteen years, claiming it as his own, and for which he had made a location and entry upon a warrant; but it does not appear whether a grant had issued. The executions, so levied, were returned to the circuit court, where an order of condemnation of the land, as it is called, was made, and an award of writs of venditioni exponas; and the land was duly sold, and George Crossna became the purchaser and took a sheriff’s deed for the same, and brought this action of
2. It is next assigned for error, that, although the land was possessed and entered by the defendant, yet it was not shown to have been granted. The act of 1794, ch. 5, sec. 7, and many subsequent acts, authorise the sheriff to sell land so held, “in the same manner as land held by deed or grant.” The effect of such a sale is to make the purchaser the owner of the land. But the argument is, that, by the provisions of those acts, the sheriff must assign the warrant or plat and certificate of survey, and that here he has made a deed. We answer, that the directions to the sheriff to assign officially the warrant or plat and certificate of survey, were intended for the benefit and protection of the purchaser, to the end that he might cause the grant to issue in his own name— they were not intended in any degree for the benefit of the enterer or former owner of the land. It was not intended, that after the sale, the enterer, whose land had been sold, should continue in possession thereof until the purchaser or assignees might get a grant in his or their own name. The sheriff’s deed, with the entry, constitutes valid evidence of a legal sale, against the enterer in possession, and enables the
Let the judgment be affirmed.
Reference
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