178 Pa. 245 | Pa. | 1896
Lead Opinion
Opinion by
The question whether under all the circumstances surrounding the parties to this action it is, or is not, conscionable on the part of the plaintiffs is not now before us. The evidence inclines us to think that the circumstances while not amounting to an estoppel at law, are entitled to consideration in foro conscientim. But the assignments of error present only a dry question of law to us. Was the orphans’ court sale of the real estate now in controversy, made in October, 1872, operative to pass a title to the purchaser ? This must depend upon whether the orphans’ court had jurisdiction over the land to order its sale, and upon the legal effect of the order and of the decree of confirmation.
Smith died in the spring of 1862 leaving to survive him a wife and five children. He was at the time of his death the owner of the farm which is the subject of this action. No administrator'was appointed. His sister, Mrs. Lippencott, had lent him money to the extent of $500 or thereabouts which he had paid upon the land when he obtained his deed. For this money no security was given by him. He had not repaid it at the time of his death, and the widow and such of the children as were of age made some arrangement with Mrs. Lippencott under which she took the farm in payment of her debt. When she came to sell it the purchaser objected to the title for the reason that two of the five children were still minors and their title had not been secured. To remedy this defect in the title and
In support of this doctrine the defendant cites Sager v. Mead, 171 Pa. 349, and kindred cases, in which this court has declined to investigate the regularity of the preliminary proceedings, after an administrator’s sale has been actually made under an order of the orphans’ court, been regularly returned to the court and approved by it. The leading case upon this subject is McPherson v. Cunliff, 11 S. & R. 422. In that case the administrators were appointed soon after the death of the decedent in 1795, the sales complained of were made in the same year and in 1796, for the payment of debts and the support of minor children. Some minor irregularities in the proceedings were alleged, but the chief objection made to the sale was that decedent had a living wife in Ireland at the time of his marriage to the mother of his children in this country of which nothing had been known when the sales were ordered and confirmed. This court held in an elaborate opinion by Justice Duncan that the
This makes the conclusiveness of the judgment or decree depend upon the jurisdiction of the court pronouncing it; and the converse of this proposition is equally clear that a decree of any court is a nullity which is pronounced upon a subject over which the court has no jurisdiction. This is elementary law. It was no new doctrine announced by this court in Torrance v. Torrance, 53 Pa. 505, when we said “ want of jurisdiction in the orphans’ court is as fatal to its proceedings as to those of any other court.” It is not indispensably necessary that the want of jurisdiction should appear affirmatively on the record. Ignorance of the law excuses no man. If an orphans’ court should .entertain a petition in divorce, hear the testimony and make a decree, the whole proceeding would be a nullity for want of jurisdiction, but it would be necessary to go behind the record and consult the statutes before the want of jurisdiction would appear. In Torrance v. Torrance, supra, the executor presented his petition to the orphans’ court for leave to sell real estate for the repayment to himself of money paid to a legatee, and for the payment to another legatee of a judgment recovered by him against the executor for a balance due him upon his legacy. The legacies had been charged by the will of the testator on certain real estate. The court without inquiry directed the sale, and subsequently made a decree of confirmation, and the deed was delivered. But in an action of ejectment we held the sale to be void. The court had under the will no jurisdiction over the land, and therefore its decree was without conclusiveness and void. None of the facts that avoided the sale appeared on the record except the fact that the sale was sought in order to pay legacies. The terms of the will and the want of statutory power to sell for such a purpose had to be sought
This has been so often held by this court that it ought to be no longer debatable. In Penn v. Hamilton, 2 Watts, 53, it was held that although the debt might have been reduced to judgment against the administrators yet if not regularly revived “ the lien is lost, whether the land be in possession of devisees or purchasers from devisees,” after the lapse of five years. In Quigley v. Beatty, 4 Watts, 13, the single point ruled is stated in these words: “ The debt of a decedent does not remain on his estate in the hands of an heir longer than seven (now five) years.” The statute was characterized in Kerper v. Hoch, 1 Watts, 9, as a statute of repose, and the lapse of time fixed as operating to discharge the land from the debts of the decedent, whether in the hands of purchasers, heirs or devisees. The last case was cited with approval in Hemphill v. Carpenter, 6 Watts, 22, and it was .there further held that knowledge of the debts by the heir, or even a promise by the heir that the debt shall remain binding on the land, would not change the rule or
The plaintiffs have shown a title derived by descent from the decedent, which had been relieved from his debts under the act
The judgment is now reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting opinion by
The real question which underlies this ease is whether a purchaser is bound, to look beyond the jurisdictional averments expressly prescribed by the act of 1832 under which orphans’
The 57th section of the act of March, 1832, regulating the manner of proceeding in the orphans’ court, prescribes that it shall be on the petition of a person interested “ setting forth ” facts necessary to give the court jurisdiction, etc.; the 19th section of the act of June 16, 1836, declares that such jurisdiction shall be exercised under the limitations and in the manner provided by law; and the proceeding under which the sale was made in this case was in exact accordance with that prescribed by law.
On the other hand, these plaintiffs have no equity either for direct or collateral attack. Those through whom they claim, having certainly had at least constructive notice by advertisement, both of the sale and the account and distribution of the proceeds, must be presumed to have acquiesced, and it is now too■ late to question their validity. “Something is due,” as was said in Grindrod’s Appeal, supra, “ to the finality of judgments.” So far as appears the property was sold for a full
The cases upon which plaintiffs rely are clearly distinguishable from the present. In Pry’s Appeal, 8 Watts, 253, and Oliver’s Appeal, 101 Pa. 299, no sales were made, but the appeals were from orders of sale. Bindley’s Appeal, 69 Pa. 295, involved a question of distribution of the proceeds of a sale the validity of which was conceded; in Maus v. Hummel, 11 Pa. 228, there was enough on the face of the record to put the purchaser on inquiry which would have led him to the knowledge of the date of the debtor’s death, and consequent want of jurisdiction ; and Grier’s Appeal, 101 Pa. 412, was ruled on the ground that the record failed to show compliance with a statu tory requirement. In Torrance v. Torrance, 53 Pa. 505, so much relied on in support of the plaintiff’s claim, want of jurisdiction appeared on the face of the record. The sale could not be sustained on the' ground of the payment of debts, because there was no averment of such, nor on the ground of the pajrment of legacies, because of the want of proper parties; but, in deciding thus, this court was careful to note the alternative presumption of validity. “We are not unmindful,” said Mr. Justice Agnew, “ that general jurisdiction over the subject protects the decrees of the orphans’ court from being assailed collaterally. But this is not such a case. Had the application been to sell the testator’s estate for his own debts, their existence might be presumed; or had it been to sell the devisee’s estate for the payment of legacies charged upon it, the want of authority in the executor to petition would have been but an irregularity.” This analysis of cases, upon which plaintiffs’ claim of title is mainly rested, shows that the right of collateral attack on decrees of orphans’ courts was recognized because, and only because, of want of jurisdiction apparent on the face of the record ; and that they afford no color for the proposition that
It will thus be seen that the sale in this case was within both the letter and the spirit of the law, and that the defendant was an innocent purchaser for value entitled to protection.