Fisher v. Foote
Fisher v. Foote
Opinion of the Court
—It maybe admitted that the lien of the vendor, Fisher, for the unpaid purchase-money due from Brown was unaffected by the substitution of Taylor for Brown as the debtor, upon the sale and conveyance of the land from Brown to Taylor. It may be quite true that the lien subsisted, notwithstanding the sale and conveyance, and attached to the land in the hands of Taylor; yet it has not been enforced. Nothing has been done to give it effect. In the rendition of judgment upon the note for the purchase-money the lien was not asserted. The judgment was rendered in personam only, and operated as a lien only from its rendition; not by reason of the cause of action on which it was rendered, but by force of the statute, which made it a lien upon the real estate of the debtor within the county from its rendition. (0. & W. Dig., Art. 1040.) The judgment did not give effect to the vendor’s lien. That remained to be asserted, and was ineffectual for any purpose,' affecting the title of the property, until
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Peter Fisher v. G. A. Foote
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- A judgment in personam operates as a lien, not by reason of the cause of action upon which it was rendered, but by force of a statute which makes judgments a lien upon the real estate of the debtor within the county from the date of its rendition. (Paschal’s Dig., Arts. 3903, 3954, Notes 935, 936.) But the purchaser at sheriff’s sale takes subject to recorded mortgages in the vendor’s name. The vendor’s lien, not having been asserted, gave no additional effect to the sale under the execution, and the judgment lien being subsequent, and consequently subordinate to the mortgage, the purchaser at the sale under execution took subject to the rights of the mortgagee, and the equity of redemption having been concluded by the decree of foreclosure, it results that the purchaser at the sale under the decree took the title, unaffected by the lien of the judgment and the sale under execution.