96 So. 435 | Ala. | 1923
In favor of bona fide purchasers for value, section 3347 of the Code of 1907 very plainly declares that purchases of real estate from insane persons shall not be void, and then declares the extent and effect of the change thereby wrought in the rule of nullity which prevailed in such cases at the common law as interpreted in this state. Dougherty v. Powe,
On a bill framed under the statute, with proof of insanity, complainant, proceeding by his next friend, might have had relief against the mortgage of which he complains to the extent the debt thereby secured exceeded the market value of the land he bought; but he did not file his bill with that view. His contention is that the mortgagee, and the assignee of the mortgage and the debt thereby secured, had knowledge or notice of his mental disability, and therefore he prays that the mortgage executed by him be declared absolutely void. On proof of these averments the mortgage would have been declared a nullity, and, since complainant received no money, but a deed to land, the purchase price of which his mortgage purported to secure, the decree would have proceeded to re-establish the status quo ante. But complainant has failed to sustain the burden of proof placed upon him by law; that is, he has failed to prove his insanity, or, if by stretch of consideration for his weakness his success in that matter be conceded, still, very clearly, he has failed to prove that defendant mortgagee or his assignee had knowledge or notice of his insanity. We so held in a recent case upon identical evidence. Hughes v. Bullen, ante, p. 134,
The chancellor's decree dismissing the bill must therefore be affirmed.
Affirmed.
ANDERSON, C. J., and GARDNER and MILLER, JJ., concur.