89 Mo. 174 | Mo. | 1886
This suit in ejectment was begun in the Atchison county circuit court to recover the possession of certain land in the petition described. The cause was by change of venue transferred to the circuit court of Buchanan county, where, upon a trial, judgment was rendered for plaintiff, from which defendant has appealed to this court.
The material question decisive of the case is whether the sheriff’s deed put in evidence by plaintiff is valid or void. This deed is as follows :
“ Know all men by these presents. That, whereas, a judgment and decree was made by the circuit court of Atchison county, Missouri, at the -regular September term thereof, A. D. 1881, and subsequently re-entered of record by a nunc pro tunc entry at the January term of said court, A. D. 1882, in a certain cause wherein Charles-II. Anderson and Aaron McCoy Anderson were plaintiffs,, and Thomas N. Morrow, John M. Morrow, Samuel B. Morrow and Timothy Whalen were defendants, in which,, among other things, it was ordered and adjudged that plaintiff recover of the defendant, Thos. N. Morrow, the sum of sixteen hundred dollars and costs of suit, and. that the lands hereinafter described be sold to satisfy such judgment and costs ; and, whereas an order of sale-was, on the thirty-first day of March, A. I). 1882, issued out of the office of the clerk of said circuit court, in said cause, directed to the sheriff of said Atchison county,. Missouri, authorizing and requiring the sale of the lands-
“Witness my hand and seal this thirty-first day oi May, 1882.
“ [Signed.] James B. G-kat, Sheriff.”
It is insisted by counsel that, although the deed recites the term of court where the judgment was rendered,
The entire record of the suit which culminated in the decree or judgment mentioned in the deed was put in evidence, from which it appears that the decree was rendered on the first day of October, 1881, which was a part of the regular September term, 1881, of said court. ¡On these facts, by authority of the cases of Ellis v. Jones, 51 Mo. 180; Davis v. Kline, 76 Mo. 310; Warner v. Sharp, 53 Mo. 598, we must hold that the objection made to the validity of the deed is not well taken. In the case last cited the deed recited that, “At an adjourned term it was ordered that the sheriff sell to the highest bidder at the court house door, ■* * * during the sitting of the circuit court, all the right, title of Josiah Whiteside,” etc. This was held to be a sufficient recital of the date of the judgment or order, on the principle that, “ that is sufficiently certain which can be reduced to a certainty.”
The case of Tanner v. Stine, 18 Mo. 580, cited by appellant’s counsel to sustain his contention, is wholly unlike the one at bar. In that case the recital was that •“ at the court house door in the city of St, Louis, during the--- term of the-court of---- for the year eighteen hundred and' forty--, be exposed to sale,” etc. This deed was held to be invalid on the distinct ground that the statute required the sale to be made during the term of the circuit court, whereas the recital not only wholly omitted to state that the sale was made during the term of the circuit court, but also omitted to state the term of court at which the sale was made and the year in which it was made.
It is also insisted by counsel that the pleadings in -the case which culminated in the judgment or decree-under which plaintiff purchased the land in question did not warrant the judgment. It appears from the record ■of that suit that the court had jurisdiction both of the -subject matter of it and the parties to it, the defendant in this suit being one of them who appeared and filed answer. If the court thus having jurisdiction, in exercising it, rendered a wrong or erroneous, judgment, such judgment, under the ruling of this court in the case of Gray v. Bowles, 74 Mo. 419, is not void, nor is it, or the title
From the whole record the judgment is clearly for the right party, and it is hereby affirmed