85 So. 266 | Ala. | 1920
The order of the trial court forfeiting the car was made "subject to the lien of Lee Wise," the petitioner, and provided that out of the proceeds of a sale of the car, after the payment of all costs and expenses, and one-fourth of the amount to the officer making the seizure, the balance be paid to said Wise as a credit on his mortgage against the owner of the car. The judgment therefore discloses that, to the satisfaction of the trial judge, petitioner had sufficiently acquitted *85 himself as a bona fide mortgagee, innocent of and without fault as to any illegal use of the car, and therefore entitled to the protection of the court in the assertion of a superior claim thereto.
The forfeiture to the state therefore, under these circumstances, could only be the right of the mortgagor or owner of the car in and to the property seized [section 13, Acts 1919, p. 6; State v. Crosswhite,
The judgment will therefore be reversed, and the cause remanded that the proper order may be entered.
Reversed and remanded.
ANDERSON, C. J., and SAYRE and BROWN, JJ., concur.