Enochs v. Wilson
Enochs v. Wilson
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
James W. Enochs, the husband of the. complainant, Ann E. Enochs, early in the year 1870, bought from one person a tract of land of 146 acres, and from another person an adjoining tract of land of 100 acres.
The chancellor’s decree was undoubtedly correct. The husband of the complainant, as the head of a family, had the right by his own conveyance, .without the wife joining therein, to make a valid mortgage or trust assignment of a part of the farm on which he Was living, provided he retained a sufficiency of land with the improvements thereon in which he was living to constitute a homestead exemption. And if the wife afterwards join the husband in mortgaging or conveying the homestead reserved, she cannot claim a homestead in the land previously mortgaged by the husband alone: Hildebrand v. Taylor, 6 Lea, 659. The land finally sold to the complainant’s father with her assent, she signing and acknowledging the execution of the deed privily and apart from her husband, and. on which the homestead improvements were located,
The chancellor, upon final hearing, being satisfied that the land conveyed in trust was not worth the amount of the debt secured and that the debtor' was-utterly insolvent, appointed a receiver to take charge-of and rent out the property pending further litigation, and until the land was sold under the decree- and the sale confirmed. And he ordered a writ of possession to issue to put the receiver in possession of the land “ notwithstanding any appeal prayed or granted to the Supreme Court.” These orders were embodied in the final decree. The complainant, Ann E. Enochs, by next friend, prayed and obtained an appeal from this decree upon giving bond with security for costs, which was done. Afterwards, upon application. by her to one of the judges of this court, a supersedeas was granted to supersede the order appointing a receiver, “ upon the petitioner giving bond with security as required by law.”
Upon this state of facts, the complainants in the cross-bill now move the court to discharge the super-sedeas thus granted, and to grant them a recovery of the damages sustained by the supersedeas upon the bond executed in this court in conformity with the fiat of the judge granting the supersedeas.
There can be no doubt that in a proper case a receiver may be appointed at the hearing, and as a part of the final decree: High on Rec. sec. 109; Merrill v.
In Merrill v. Elam, 2 Tenn. Ch. 513, the debtor defendant appealed from a final decree confirming a sale of his land under previous decrees. Upon application of the purchaser, who was also the complainant, and it appearing that the defendant was in possession of the land and insolvent, the chancellor appointed a - receiver, first "setting aside the order granting an appeal, and then giving the defendant permission to change the prayer of appeal so as to include the order appointing the receiver. This court, upon appeal, discharged a supersedeas of the order granted by one of the judges, and issued a
An order appointing á receiver merely for the purpose of taking possession of property in litigation, and managing it for the interest of all parties, is in its very nature interlocutory, no matter at what stage of the cause it may be made. All of the courts of this State, and the judges thereof, are clothed with the power to appoint receivers “for the safe keeping, collection, management and disposition of property in litigation,” whenever necessary to the ends of substantial justice: Code, secs. 3768, 3948. Such an order can neither be appealed from directly, nor superseded under the special provisions of the Code authorizing the supersedeas of certain interlocutory orders: Code, sec. 3933. Such orders, as well as all other proceedings in a chancery cause, are brought up for
In the case before us, the order appointing a receiver was superseded by the fiat of one "of the Judges of this court. He granted the fiat upon the ground that the appeal, which was general, brought up the entire case, as it certainly did. The appellees might have tested the question of their right to a receiver either by moving to dismiss the supersedeas, as was done in Merrill v. Elam and Hoge v. Hollister, or by asking this court to execute the order of appointment. They did neither, but allowed the order to remain unexecuted. The only bond demandable from the appellant in this case, treating the appeal as bringing up the unexecuted order appointing a receiver, was a bond for costs. The fiat of the judge does not prescribe the conditions of the bond. The bond actually given under the order of supersedeas was broader, but its provisions beyond the requirements of the law and the fiat of the judge were not binding: Ranning v. Reeves, 2 Tenn. Ch., 263.
The decree below will be affirmed. The costs of this court and the chancery court will be paid by the next friend of the original complainant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.