138 Ga. 504 | Ga. | 1912
A sale by a receiver appointed by a court is a typical judicial sale, and the maxim caveat emptor applies to such a sale. The purchaser must look for himself as to the title and soundness of the property sold. Civil Code, § 6054; Campbell v. Parker, 59 N. J. Eq. 342 (45 Atl. 116). Such sales are by the court, and there is no' one to go back on if the buyer takes nothing. Fraud will vitiate such a sale.; and where it is made to appear, it will authorize the court to set it aside. Folsom v. Howell, 94 Ga. 112 (21 S. E. 136). But in the petition under consideration no fraud or misrepresentation on the part of the receivers in relation to the sale by them was alleged. It is true that the petition alleges that an electric-lighting plant was connected with the Hawkinsville Cotton Mill, “and in connection therewith was a franchise of what was purported and represented to be a franchise granted by the City of Hawkinsville, and under a contract with said City of Hawkinsville the said Hawkinsville Cotton Mill was to furnish said city and its inhabitants with electric lights for a term of 10 years;” but it does not appear from the petition how; this was purported and who represented it to be true. The petition further alleges that the petitioner, through Cooper, negotiated with the receivers for the purchase of the property of the Hawkinsville Cotton Mill, “including the franchise and the contract of the City of Hawkinsville for the lighting of the same,” and that the proposition made by the petitioner to purchase all of such property was accepted by the receivers under the authorization of the judge, and that the sale made in pursuance thereof was subsequently confirmed. There is nothing, however, in such allegations which shows that the receivers did not in good faith believe that the Hawkinsville Cotton Mill had a franchise for the operation of the lighting plant, and a contract with the City of Hawkinsville for the lighting of its streets. While a court of equity would doubtless relieve a purchaser at a receiver’s sale, where it was made to appear, before the completion of the sale and purchase, that he had acted in good faith and in the exer
Judgment affirmed.