| Ky. Ct. App. | Apr 4, 1872
delivered the opinion op the court.
In his petition appellant, Joseph Swager, alleges that on the 2d of January, 1837, Edmond S. Lampton conveyed to John B. Black and W. T. Pettet a number of lots in Lampton’s addition to the city of Louisville, among which was a lot known on the map of said addition as lot No. 64; that on-the 17th of June, 1839, said Pettet conveyed his interest in said lot to said Black, and on the 3d of April, 1850, said Black conveyed the same lot to him; that Thos. F. Crutchfield and wife obtained
To the petition a demurrer was sustained, and the only question presented by this record is, are the facts alleged sufficient to entitle appellant to the relief sought?
Section 2 of the statute against champerty and maintenance provides “that all sales or conveyances, including those made under execution, of any lands, or the pretended right or title to the same, of which any other person at the time of such sale, contract, or conveyance has adverse possession, shall be null and void,” and the residue of the section contains exceptions to the operation of the part quoted, and has no application to this case.
Section 4 provides that the person in the adverse possession according to the provisions of the second and third sections of this chapter, his personal representatives, heirs, or assigns, or the person under whom such occupant claims or holds, his persona] representatives, heirs, or assigns, may give in evidence
The first section of the act of 1824 against champerty declares that no person shall sell, or purchase by deed of conveyance or bond or executory contract, any pretended title or right to land of which any other person than such vendor or vendee shall at the time of such sale or purchase have possession adverse to the right or title so sold or purchased; that every conveyance, deed, bond, or contract entered into in violation of said section shall be void, and no right of action shall accrue to either party thereunder.
The third section of the act authorizes the person in the adverse possession of the land according to the provisions of the first and second sections of said act to plead such sales, contracts, and conveyances in bar of any action or suit or claim founded thereon, and.permits the person in possession sued for the land to bring the parties to contracts therein prohibited before the court, and compel a discovery on oath of any such sale or contract. (1 M. & B. 285-6.)
These two enactments, so far as they relate to sales and conveyances of lands adversely held at the time, and provide a remedy for the person or persons in possession, are substantially the same; and this court has in several cases decided a similar question to the one arising on this record under the statute of 1824 (supra), and by adjudications of this court since the adoption of the Revised Statutes the former adjudications are regarded as applicable to the statute now in force, and as authoritative in the interpretation thereof.
In Jones v. Chiles (2 Dana, 25" court="Ky. Ct. App." date_filed="1834-04-09" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/jones-v-chiles-7379862?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7379862">2 Dana, 25) the court said the deed to Jones, executed in 1826, is not void under the act of 1824
Nor • can we perceive any motive or object which could have influenced the legislature to prohibit the sale and conveyance of a tract of land recovered by the final and irreversible judgment of the court until after the tenants shall have been dispossessed by the execution of the writ of habere facias.
And even if it be admitted that the deed from Crutchfield to Obst came within the letter of the second section of the act against champerty, the voidness of the deed would leave the title in the grantors, and would present no obstacle to the further prosecution of the suit, as was decided in Chiles v. Conley’s heirs (9 Dana, 385" court="Ky. Ct. App." date_filed="1840-05-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/chiles-v-conleys-heirs-7380775?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7380775">9 Dana, 385); and the court in that case said, “We are of opinion that the policy of the statute does not extend to a case in which neither the commencement nor the prosecution nor the result of the suit can be traced to the sale and deed, which are impeached as violative of its letter, and in which such sale and deed have had no tendency to produce or continue the litigation.” The sale to Obst did not instigate nor continue the litigation; but there can not be a doubt that it would have been carried on precisely as it was if the sale had never been made. And in giving construction to the champerty act now in force the court cited Jones v. Chiles (supra) as authority. (Barret, &c. v. Coburn, 3 Met. 511.)
The title sold to Obst was not a “pretended” title; it had been adjudged a valid and superior title, before he bought, by a court of competent jurisdiction, and that judgment was afterward affirmed by this court.
The judgment therefore must be affirmed.