256 Pa. 130 | Pa. | 1917
Opinion by
The appellant, a judgment creditor of .the appellee in the sum of $2,446.56, caused execution to issue on the judgment he had obtained, and thereunder a levy was made by the sheriff, 31st of January, 1911, according to his return, “on all the steel and iron rails, mine equipments, coal cars, etc., belonging to the Keystone Collieries, a corporation, at their several mines known as Keystone, Standard, Monroe and Jocelyn, and also all other personal property belonging to the defendants not herein mentioned, which said mines are situate in Toby and Madison Townships, Clarion County, Pa.” On February 8th following the sheriff exposed to sale the property so levied upon and sold, as one of the articles included in the levy, an air-compressor weighing between 8 and 10 tons, and of the value of about $2,500.00, to the plaintiff in the execution, on the latter’s bid of $25.00. The sheriff made the following return to the writ: “February 25, 1911, after due and public notice, property cried and sold, for $308.50 — $21.50 applied' on costs, bal
The assignments of error do not call for separate consideration. The case turns upon a single point. Did the facts found warrant the conclusion reached by the court that the sale of the compressor by the sheriff was invalid and void? The only findings of fact that need be referred to in this inquiry, since they alone have any bearing upon the question, are comprised in the fifth request submitted by the plaintiff, which received a qualified affirmance, and the seventh of the court’s general findings. The finding asked for by plaintiff was as follows: “The sale of personal property of the Keystone Collieries was advertised by the sheriff of said county to take place at the Jocelyn Mines owned by the Keystone Colliery on February 8, 1911, on which date, at the instance of the defendant therein, who was plaintiff in said writ, the said sheriff adjourned said sale to another place about two and one-half miles distant, to wit, to the Monroe Mines owned by the Keystone Collieries, and without any other or further notice immediately went to the Monroe Mines and sold the compressor aforesaid as the personal property of the defendant in the writ......for a price or sum not exceeding $25.00, which sum was grossly inadequate compared to the value of the said compressor. The valxxe of the said compressor in place at the time of the said sale was in excess of $2,000.00.” The court’s answer was, “Affirmed, except as to that part
So far as the findings show — and to these we are limited — the case stands free of fraud or collusion, and we have to consider only the legal effect (1) of the failure of the sheriff in his public notices of sale, the required number of which had been duly posted, to make special mention of the air compressor as an article to be sold, and (2) the sale of the compressor at another place than that announced in the advertisement. That we have thus correctly stated the considerations that influenced the mind of the trial judge is shown in the concluding part of his discussion of the facts, Avhere he says: “While there appears to be a dearth of authority directly upon the question, the evidence and facts found lead necessarily and reasonably to the conclusion that the sale in question Avas not made in compliance with the requirements of the statute; that it was so conducted as to afford just reason for complaint; that notice thereof was not given as so required, and that the sale was practically without notice, either as to the particular property and its nature and character, which the sheriff intended to offer, or as to the time and place of sale.” His second legal conclusion derived from the facts found is: The so-called sale of the said compressor by the sheriff was, under the facts found and hereinbefore indicated, void, and did not operate to vest the title thereto in the plaintiff in the execution as the purchaser at such sale.”
The judgment is reversed.