22 Ala. 543 | Ala. | 1853
This was a bill filed in the Chancery Court of Talladega county, by Joel L. Stone, Isaac Hudson and John W. Wood, perpetually to enjoin an action of ejectment instituted by the defendant, as the lessor of the fictitious plaintiff, to recover of said John W. Wood, tenant in possession, a tract of land known as the south-west quarter of section thirty, in township twenty-one, in range three, situate in said county.
The Chancellor dismissed the bill for want of equity, and the propriety of that decree is the question presented by the assignment of error. Do the allegations of the bill, conceding them to be true, make out a case for equitable relief? They
The complainants insist that Britton is estopped, by his conduct, from setting up his after acquired title to invalidate Stone’s purchase. The defendant, by his counsel, contends on the other hand: first, that to estop him, it must be shown that he did some act, or made some declaration, inconsistent with the truth, with the design to influence the conduct of another; and second, that such other party was influenced thereby to his prejudice. Other arguments are urged against the application of the doctrine of estoppel to the facts of this case, but they resolve themselves into the two above stated.
We may fully concede both the propositions contended for by the defendant’s counsel, and even then the case made by the allegations of the bill is clearly against the defendant.
The statute forbids the sale of an equitable title to land, under an execution at law. The defendant in the execution, who must be presumed to know that such was the law, as well as to know whether his title was legal or equitable, directed the sheriff to levy upon and sell this land. But for such direction, we must intend that the sheriff would not have sold; for we cannot indulge the presumption that the sheriff would knowingly have attempted to sell, under an execution at law, what the statute says shall only be subjected by bill in equity. It results, that the sale is to be attributed to the direction given by Britton to the sheriff, who pointed out the land, and caused the levy and sale, and has thus obtained the benefit of the proceeds, which have gone toward the satisfaction of an execution against him. After having thus acted, does it lie in Britton’s mouth to say, “ True, I caused the land to be sold, with the declared view of raising money to pay my debt, and it has been sold according to my direction, and the proceeds have been applied as contemplated by me; but I had no legal title, and I will, therefore, hold on to what I have obtained, and will deprive the purchaser of the land ?” It is manifest, at first blush, that this would be a palpable fraud; nor is it less a'fraud, that he avails himself of the sheriff’s agency and an execution to perpetrate it. The fraud and injury inflicted on the purchaser is not the less subject to judicial animadversion, because it was effected by indirection and circuity.
But whether the admissions or declarations be true or false, were express or implied merely, or whether made with intent to defraud, is not the question in such cases. The true inquiry is, has the party, by them, or by his line of conduct, procured another to act, by which he has obtained advantage ? and will the affirmance of the untruth of such declaration, or the disaffirmance of the necessary or proximate consequences resulting from such line of conduct, work injustice to the opposite party ? In such case, the party should be estopped.
In the case before us, Britton not only superinduces the sale, by his direction given to the sheriff, to levy upon and sell the land, but, after the sale was made, he ratifies and confirms it, and surrenders the possession of the land sold to the purchaser, who is thereby enabled to sell to others, who in turn take possession and make payment for it. To allow him now to say he had only an equitable title, which the sheriff could not sell, would, we repeat, be to permit him to practice a fraud upon the purchaser. Every principle of public policy and sound morality forbids that he should procure a sale to be made for his own benefit; that he should stimulate the purchaser to bid by bidding himself, through his agent; avail himself of the proceeds; then ratify and confirm it, and afterwards repudiate it. The authorities are full to the point, that the estoppel should be an effectual bar to Britton, against setting up his legal title. 2 B. Monroe 254; 16 Ala. Rep. 715, and the cases cited on the brief of complainants’ counsel.
Let the decree be reversed, and the cause remanded, at the cost of the defendant in error.