35 S.C. 409 | S.C. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
By virtue of a decree for the sale of the mortgaged premises, obtained in the principal cause, the same being a tract of land in the County of Colleton, this land was offered for sale by the master on the saleday in December, 1888, it being the 3rd day of that month, and bid off by one Benjamin Sauls for the sum of ten dollars, who, having complied with the terms of sale, received titles from the master. The master having made his report of the sale, the appellant filed exceptions thereto, and also his petition, praying that the said sale be declared null and void, and that the deed executed by the master to the purchaser Sauls be delivered up to be cancelled ; that said Sauls be enjoined from entering upon and using said land, and for such other relief as may be appropriate. A copy of this order was, by the order of Judge Wallace, served upon the said Sauls, with leave to answer the same within twenty days, and in due time Sauls filed his answer, contesting the material allegations contained in the petition. The case was then referred to C. Gr. Henderson, master, to take the testimony and report the same to the court. The testimony having been taken and reported to the court, and an order having been granted, substituting the name of J. O. DeTreville, as executor of the will of the said Benjamin Sauls, who had in the meantime died, leaving his last will and testament, appointing the said J. C. DeTreville executor of the same, the case was heard by his honor, Judge Izlar, who, saying that “in my opinion the proofs show that there was
From this judgment the petitioner appeals upon the several grounds set out in the record. These grounds substantially impute the following errors to the Circuit Judge in rendering 'his judgment: 1st. That he erred in holding that the land was advertised in substantial compliance with the law, whereas he should have held that the advertisement, not having been published for the full period of twenty one days, the sale was null and void, because made without legal authority. 2nd. That there was error in holding that there was no surprise on the part of the petitioner, the testimony showing the contrary, whereas he should have held that on account of the surprise and misapprehension on the part of the petitioner, as well as on account of the wholly inadequate price at which the property was bid off, the sale should be set aside.
Under the view which we take of this case, it will not be necessary to consider the question raised in the argument here, whether in a case like this, where the title has been executed, the petitioner could obtain the relief which he seeks by this mode of proceeding, because we think that the petitioner has failed to show that he is entitled to relief by any mode of proceeding. His claim is based upon two grounds: 1st. That the sale was illegal and unauthorized, because made without giving the notice required by law. 2nd. That the sale thus made without due notice was a surprise to him, and he was therefore prevented from bidding to the full amount of his debt, as he intended to do, an amount very much larger than that for which the property was bid off by the alleged purchaser.
While for many years the time for which sheriffs were required to advertise sales made under execution was prescribed by statute, yet until latterly there was no such • statutory provision in regard to sales made under the order of the court, and therefore the practice of the old Court of Equity was to prescribe, in the order of sale, the time for which it should be advertised. Baily v. Baily, 9 Rich. Eq., 392; Bulow v. Witte, 3 S. C., 326. As these cases show, while the law thus stood, it was held that where the officer directed to make the sale fails to comply with the terms of the order, from which alone he derives his authority to sell, in making the sale, such sale is without authority, and therefore void. To use the language of Dargan, Ch., in Baily v. Baily, supra: “But where the court has made an order of sale, of which a notice is to be given by advertisement for a given time, such direction, as well as the other terms, become the law of the case. It becomes the condition on which the authority is to be exercised, the non-performance of which will destroy the power.” Hence it was held in that case, where the order of sale required that the sale should be advertised for twenty-one days, and the advertisement was for only twenty days, that the sale was invalid because made without authority.
Now, however, we have statutory regulations in regard to such sales, which may be found in section 307 of the Code, and in sections 1987, 1988, and 2424 of the General Statutes. The
It may admit of question whether the provisions of sections 1987 and 1988 have any application to a sale like this, made under the order of the court for the purpose of affording equitable relief, and are not confined to sales made by the sheriff under execution or under proceedings to foreclose a mortgage in the court of law, as provided for by the act of 1791; and it may also admit of question whether the provisions of section 307 of the Code apply to the time for wrhich a sale is required to be advertised, and are not confined to the modes of making the sale. But without pursuing the inquiries thus suggested, and without intending to intimate any opinion in reference thereto, we will assume, for the purposes of this case, that the only statutory regulation which we have as to the time for advertising a sale of real estate under the order of the court is that contained in section
There may have been some ground for the distinction between sales made under execution and sales made under an order of the court, in respect to the effect of a failure to comply with the requirement as to the length of time a sale should be advertised, when in the one case it was a general statutory requirement applying to all sales made under execution, and in the other it was a special requirement made by the court in a given case, as the condition upon w’hich its officer was authorized to sell; but now, since both classes of sales have been placed upon the same footing in this respect, by the same statute and the some clause of the statute, we do not see how there can be any longer any ground for such a distinction. It would, to say the least of it, be anomalous to hold that when one officer — the sheriff — makes a sale under execution, and fails to comply with the requirement as to notice found in section 2424, such failure is a mere irregularity which will not vitiate the sale, and at the same time to hold that where another officer — the master — makes a sale under the order of the court, and fails to comply with the same requirement in the same section, his failure will not be a mere irregularity, but will render the sale absolutely null and
It seems to us, therefore, that the law respecting the length of notice required to be given of this sale was complied with ; and if it had not been, it is a mere irregularity which cannot affect the validity of the sale.
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.