49 Neb. 717 | Neb. | 1896
In a justice court of Webster county William Peering & Co., in February, 1888, recovered a judgment against C. N., J. Q., and A. L. Robinson. A transcript of this judgment was at once filed and docketed in the office of the clerk of the district court of said county. In November, 3888, C. N. Robinson and his wife, Mary, conveyed by warranty deed a tract of land in Webster county to the said A. L. Robinson. In December, 1888, A. L. Robinson conveyed this real estate to the said Mary A. Robinson. Something like a year after this last conveyance O. N. Robinson and wife removed to the state of Missouri, it seems, with the intention of making that their future home; and while there, in September, 1891, sold and conveyed the real estate mentioned above to
1. The evidence shows without contradiction that the tract of land owned by C. N. Robinson in 1888, when the judgment of Deering & Co. was rendered, consisted of about sixty acres, was of less value than $2,000, and was then occupied by himself and wife as a homestead; that in November, 1888, Robinson and his wife conveyed the land to A. L. Robinson for the sole purpose of having the latter convey it to Mary Robinson, the wife of C. N.,
But it is insisted that C. N. Robinson and wife removed to the state of Missouri after the title to the real estate was vested in the wife, with the intention of making their home in that state, and that such removal was an abandonment of the homestead, and that the land at once became liable for the judgment of Deering & Co. The fallacy of this argument is that the real estate was then the property of Mrs. Robinson, and Deering & Co. had no judgment against her and her property was not liable for her husband’s debt.
Another argument is that the judgment of Deering & Co. was also against A. L. Robinson, and as the legal title to this land was conveyed to him on the 24th day of November, 1888, that the judgment from that instant became a lien upon it; that it was not A. L. Robinson’s homestead, and that Mrs. Robinson, by the subsequent conveyance from A. L. Robinson, took the legal title to the land incumbered with the lien of the Deering judgment. But A. L. Robinson was a trustee for Mrs. Robinson. The legal title to the land was conveyed to him for the express purpose of having him convey it to Mrs. Robinson. A. L. Robinson had, to be sure, the legal title for a few days, but he was not the owner of the land.
2. The sale made of this land was regular in all respects. It was made in conformity to all the provisions of the statute. The appellants’ bid for the property was more than two-thirds of its appraised value, and no one moved to set aside the sale or objected to its confirmation. We are wholly unable to understand for what reason the district court vacated the sale. Of course, if there has been any fraud or unfairness, irregularity, or disregard of the statute in making a sale, doubtless the court is invested with the authority to set it aside; but when a sale has been fairly conducted and made, when all the provisions of the statute have been complied with, when the property has been sold for two-thirds of its appraised value, when the sale has been duly reported to the court and when no objections are interposed to its confirmation, the district court has not the discretion to arbitrarily set the sale aside, but should confirm it. The decree of the court setting aside the sale is reversed. This cause is remanded, with instructions to the district court to confirm the sale made of the real estate in question to the ap
Decree accordingly.