Finn v. Lifsey, (No. 6951.)

• Decision Date: 16 December 1929
• Docket Number: (No. 6951.)
• Citation: 169 Ga. 599,150 S.E. 908
• Parties: FINN et al. v. LIFSEY.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

169 Ga. 599

150 S.E. 908

FINN et al.

v.LIFSEY.

(No. 6951.)

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Dec. 16, 1929.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

[Ed. Note—For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, First, Second, and Third Series, Defect of or in Title.]

Beck, P. J., and Atkinson, J., dissenting.

Certiorari from Court of Appeals.

Suit by C. L. Lifsey against J. M. Finn and another. Judgment for defendants was reversed by the Court of Appeals (38 Ga. App. 671, 145 S. E. 519), and defendants bring certiorari. Reversed.

G. H. AVilliams & Co., a partnership of which J. M. Finn and T. J. Pritchett were members, on October 11, 1913, sold) to L. A. Wood a tract of land in Laurens county, aggregating 500 acres, and made him a bond for title. This bond was assigned by Wood to W. A. Bonner on January 13, 1914, and by Bonner to Emma A. Lifsey on November 13, 1914. On December 3, 1915, Emma A. Lifsey contracted to sell to Ira N. Eubanks 150 acres of the 500-acre tract, to which she held bond for title, and agreed that Williams & Co., Who originally gave the bond, would make "a good and sufficient title" to the 150 acres when $1,500 of the consideration for which it was sold to Eubanks was paid to Williams & Co. To this Williams & Co. agreed in writing, and the consideration was paid. Eubanks failed to pay his taxes, an execution was issued against him, and the 150 acres of land were sold under the execution, and a sheriff's deed was made on June 13, 1917, to Laurens county. On September 30, 1918, Laurens county made a quitclaim deed, conveying the 150 acres to J. N. Stephens, and on the same date Eubanks made a quitclaim deed, conveying the same land to J. N. Stephens. On November 20, 1918, Stephens conveyed by quitclaim deed 110 acres of the 150 acres to Zoe May Eubanks, retaining 40 acres. On November 20, 1918, Zoe May Eubanks conveyed the 110 acres by warranty deed to W. W. Sanders. In the meantime the firm of G. H. Williams & Co. had dissolved, and the note of L. A. Wood, which was given to Williams & Co. for the balance of the purchase price of the 500 acres, went to J. M. Finn and to Mrs. Willie McL. Pritchett, as executrix of the estate of T. J. Pritchett, in the division of the assets of Williams & Co. On November 6, 1918, Finn and Pritchett, in compliance with the bond given by Williams & Co., executed to C. L. Lifsey a warranty deed conveying the entire 500 acres. When C. L. Lifsey sought to enter upon the 500 acres to which he held the warranty deed from Finn and Pritchett, he found W. W. Sanders and J. N. Stephens in possession of 150 acres thereof; they claiming that they owned the same, and that their title was older and better than the title of C. L. Lifsey, and they refused to deliver to him possession of the 150 acres.

Thereupon Lifsey brought ejectment against Stephens and Sanders, and vouched Finn and Mrs. Pritchett into court to defend the title which they had warranted to him. The parties so vouched appeared. The trial in the ejectment suit resulted in a verdict in favor of Stephens and Sanders. Thereupon C. L. Lifsey filed suit against Finn and Mrs. Pritchett, alleging that the loss of this 150 acres of land constituted a breach of the warranty they had given him, and he prayed damages in the sum of $1,500. Upon the trial of this suit the court directed a verdict against the plaintiff, who filed a motion for new trial, and upon the overruling of his motion he excepted and carried the case to the Court of Appeals (38 Ga. App. 671, 145 S. E. 519, 520), which court reversed the judgment overruling the motion for new trial, and holding that "a general warranty of title in a deed against the claims of all persons covers defects in the title though known to the purchaser at the time of taking the deed." J. M. Finn and Mrs. Willie McL. Pritchett brought the case to this court by writ of certiorari.

It is contended that the decision of the Court of Appeals is erroneous: (a) In holding that, where A sells land and gives a bond for title to B, who transfers the bond for title to C, who sells a part of the land to D, and D allows the land to be sold...