Wolf v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 31 March 1855
• Citation: 20 Mo. 459
• Parties: WOLF et al., Defendants in Error, v. ROBINSON, et al., Plaintiffs in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

20 Mo. 459

WOLF et al., Defendants in Error,

v.ROBINSON, et al., Plaintiffs in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1855.

1. The heirs of an intestate, by obtaining a decree for the legal title to real estate of which he died seized in equity, cannot defeat the right of the administrator to sell his equity for the payment of debts; and the purchaser at the administration sale may enforce a conveyance of the legal title.

2. The title of the purchaser at an administration sale does not depend upon the truth of the facts stated in the petition upon which the order of sale was made. This cannot be contested in a collateral proceeding.

Error to Franklin Circuit Court.

This was a petition to obtain the legal title to certain real estate in the town of Washington.

Charles Eberius died in 1839, leaving the defendants his heirs at law. At the time of his death he held a title bond for the property in controversy. After his death, the defendants, in a statutory proceeding against the administratrix of the obligor in the bond to enforce a specific performance, obtained a decree vesting in them a legal title. Afterwards, the administrator of Eberius, upon a petition to the county court, representing that the personal estate of the intestate was insufficient to pay his debts, and accompanied by the proper lists and inventories, obtained an order for the sale of the real estate. The plaintiffs claim by regular conveyances under the sale thus made, as to the regularity of which there was no dispute, except as herinafter stated.

The above facts appear in the petition of the plaintiffs.

The defendants answered, admitting the material facts stated in the petition, but relying upon the decree as conclusive of their title, and alleging that no necessity existed for the sale by the administrator of Eberius, as the personal estate was sufficient to have paid all the debts of the intestate, if it had not been wasted.

This answer was stricken out; and a decree was afterwards entered vesting the legal title in the plaintiffs, according to the prayer of their petition. The defendants appealed.

J. D. Stevenson, for plaintiffs in error.

N. Holmes, for defendants in error.

SCOTT, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

1. The heirs of Eberius, by obtaining a decree for the legal title to the estate of which he died seized in equity, could not defeat nor affect the right of the administrator of Eberius to sell his equity in the land for the payment of the debts due by his...