Baird v. Hall

• Decision Date: 30 June 1872
• Citation: 67 N.C. 230
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: JAMES B. BAIRD et al. v. JACK HALL.

67 N.C. 230

JAMES B. BAIRD et al.

v.JACK HALL.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June Term, 1872.

A collecting officer or agent, without instructions to the contrary, is authorized to receive, in payment of such debts as he may have to collect, whatever kind of currency is received by prudent business men for similar purposes, and whatever an officer is authorized to receive, a debtor is authorized to pay.

When, therefore, a Clerk and Master, in the year 1863, received Confederate currency in payment of the purchase money, due for lands sold in 1858, it is to be determined upon the principle above stated, whether the money should have been taken or not. If not, the Master is responsible for the value of the currency, and the purchaser entitled to a credit pro tanto, and in a proceeding against him, to collect the money or re-sell the land, the Master should be made a party.

Where instructions are given, or the parties interested assent to the payment of Confederate money to the Master, he and the purchaser are released from any liability therefor.

When the widow and heirs at law unite in a petition to sell the lands decended, she electing to take the value of her dower in money, and she becomes the purchaser and re-sells to a third person; it was held, that, in a proceeding against the second purchaser to collect the money or re-sell the land, he is entitled to a credit for the value of the dower, and likewise for the value of the shares of any one or more of the heirs at law who were capable of assenting, and did assent to payment in Confederate currency.

[ Atkins v. Mooney, Phillips 31. Emerson v. Mallett, Phil. Eq. 234.]

This was an action to subject real estate in the hands of a second purchaser, to the payment of the purchase money due on a Clerk and Master's sale, tried before Cloud, J., Fall Term, 1871, of ROWAN Superior Court.

Plaintiffs allege, that they are the heirs-at-law of one Horace Baird, who died in the County of Rowan, in the year 1858, seized of a large real estate; that they, in connection with the widow of the deceased, filed a bill for the sale for partition of said lands; that a decree was made in 1858, directing a sale of the same; that the real estate was sold by the Clerk and Master, one Luke Blackmer, and the widow became the purchaser, for the aggregate sum of $5,710; that the Master, in September 1863, made a deed for the said real estate to the purchaser, Mrs. Baird, who subsequently sold the same to the defendant Hall, and that no part of the purchase money has been paid.

The complaint demands judgment, that the defendant be ordered to convey the land to the plaintiff, or that the same be sold and the proceeds applied to the payment of the purchase money, &c., &c.

The defendant, in his answer, admits the filing of the bill, the decree, sale, and purchase by Mrs. Baird, but alleges, by way of defence, that in February 1863, Mrs. Baird, by her agent, Lake Blackmer, contracted in writing to sell to him, as of January 1863, the most valuable part of the real estate, for the sum of $10,000 in Confederate money; that he paid to the said Mrs. Baird, on the 25th February, 1863, through her agent Blackmer, the said sum of $10,000 in Confederate money, and took from her a written undertaking to make title as soon as a survey could me made; that on the 15th day of September, 1863, Mrs. Baird agreed in waiting to sell him the remainder of the real estate, for the sum of $5,000 in Confederate money; that he subsequently paid the money to Mrs. Baird, and took a deed for the whole of the land on the 21st day of October, 1863; that the Clerk and Master did make to Mrs. Baird a deed for the real estate in September 1863, but that it was not the first deed; that shortly after the payment of the $10,000, the said Clerk and Master made a deed to Mrs. Baird, and she conveyed to the defendant, but that afterwards, and after receiving the balance of the purchase money from Mrs. Baird, the Clerk and Master made a deed to her, including all the real estate purchased, which she then conveyed to him.

Defendant alleges, that he paid Luke Blackmer, Clerk and Master in Equity, and the agent of Mrs. Baird, the sum of $15,000 in Confederate money; that $10,000 was paid in February, and the remainder in September and October, 1863. Defendant insists that it was a valid payment, and as such was accepted and received by Blackmer, Clerk and Master.

Defendant insists, that he has a right to be substituted to the rights of Mrs. Baird; that she and the other plaintiffs, who were of age, assented fully to the receipt of the Confederate money by Blackmer, and...