Fred Robertson v. Howard

• Decision Date: 10 June 1913
• Docket Number: No. 320,320
• Citation: 57 L.Ed. 1174,33 S.Ct. 854,229 U.S. 254
• Parties: FRED. ROBERTSON and W. J. Ratcliff, Plffs. in Err., v. C. F. HOWARD and Fred. Howard
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

229 U.S. 254

33 S.Ct. 854

57 L.Ed. 1174

FRED. ROBERTSON and W. J. Ratcliff, Plffs. in Err.,

v C. F. HOWARD and Fred. Howard.

No. 320.

Submitted May 7, 1913.

Decided June 10, 1913.

Messrs. Charles Blood Smith and Samuel Barnum for plaintiffs in error.

Messrs. T. F. Garver and R. D. Garver for defendants in error.

Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:

John H. Hagener was adjudicated a bankrupt by the district court of the United States for the southern district of Illinois, and a trustee for his estate was qualified. At the time of the adjudication the bankrupt was the owner, by assignment executed to him on October 28, 1901, of two certificates, each reciting the purchase from the state of Kansas of a particular quarter section of school lands situated in Rawlins county, Kansas, of the making of a partial payment therefor, and the right to receive from the state a deed of the land upon the payment of the balance due. The certificates were placed on the bankruptcy schedule as real estate. Upon the petition of the trustee the referee ordered the sale at public auction, after ten days' notice by publication in a newspaper of general circulation, published in Cass county, Illinois and by distribution of handbills, of the interest of the bankrupt in certain described real estate, including the certificates in question. The published notice, however, mistakenly stated the lands to be situated in range 1 instead of in range 34. The certificates realized only the sum of $1 each. The sale, on the report of the trustee, was confirmed by the referee. The record does not affirmatively show that any appraisement was made either of the certificates or of the interest of the bankrupt in the land which they embraced.

By virtue of the sale and its confirmation, the trustee executed an assignment to Henry Fraumann, the purchaser at the sale, of each certificate and of 'all the right, title, and interest' of the bankrupt 'of and to the land therein described.' Fraumann transferred the certificates and his interest in the land, as well as all his right to rents and profits which had accrued, to Fred. Robertson, one of the plaintiffs in error, and Robertson executed a like assignment of an undivided half of each certificate, with an undivided half of the interest in the real estate and in the rents which had accrued, to W. J. Ratcliff, the other plaintiff in error.

It appears that in September, 1901, just prior to the time when Hagener, the bankrupt, had acquired the certificates, the taxes on the land not having been paid, a sale for delinquent taxes took place, at which the county of Rawlins became the purchaser. The county, on September 28, 1903, issued a certificate to each of the defendants in error, reciting the tax sale, the purchase by the county, the payment by the defendants in error of the delinquent taxes and costs, and assigned the interest of the county in the property to the purchasers. Subsequently, evidently treating the certificates which had been previously issued for the land by the state, and which were surrendered in the bankruptcy, under the circumstances we have recited, as being the land itself, and there- fore as passing to the purchaser at the sale for delinquent taxes, assignments were drawn by the county officials, making recitals of the facts, and virtually substituting the two Howards to the ownership of the right, title, and interest acquired under the original certificates, with the right on their part to acquire patents for the land from the state on paying the balance due to the state on the terms fixed in the original certificates issued by the state. Thereafter the two Howards, as owners each of a quarter section, under these proceedings, went into possession of the land.

Subsequently, as the result of mandamus proceedings, Robertson and Ratcliff, as the owners of the lands by virtue of the original certificates issued by the state, surrendered by the bankrupt, and acquired by the sale in bankruptcy, paid the full amount of principal and interest due to the state upon the certificates, as also a sum sufficient to reimburse each of the Howards for the moneys disbursed by them in acquiring from the county of Rawlins supposed rights under the tax sale to which we have referred, it not being disputed that the tax sales were void. In the year 1899 patents of the state for the land were duly issued to Robertson and Ratcliff.

Prior to the issue of the state patents, as above mentioned, and while the bankruptcy proceedings were undetermined, the bankrupt and his wife executed to Robertson and Ratcliff a quitclaim deed of all their right, title, and interest to the land.

Soon after the execution by Hagener and wife of this quitclaim deed, Robertson and Ratcliff commenced two actions in ejectment in the district court of Rawlins county, Kansas, to recover possession of the two quarter sections, and damages for detention. The defendant in one action was C. F. Howard, and the defendant in the other action was Fred. Howard. The plaintiffs recovered in the trial court. On appeal to the supreme court of the state, the actions were consolidated and the court decided that the sale in the bankruptcy proceedings was void, and that the purchaser did not acquire either the title to the certificates or the right to the possession of the quarter sections in controversy. The judgment of the trial court was nevertheless affirmed upon the ground that the interest of the bankrupt in the land passed by the quitclaim deed executed by the bankrupt and his wife. 82 Kan. 588, 109 Pac. 696. Upon a rehearing the judgment of affirmance was vacated and set aside and the judgment of the trial court was reversed, with directions to render judgment for the Howards, the claimants under the tax sale. 83 Kan. 453, 112 Pac. 162. This was based upon the ruling that not only was the sale in the bankruptcy proceedings of the certificates of purchase invalid, but that a right to possession was not derived from the quitclaim deed, since when it was executed and when the actions in ejectment were commenced, the bankruptcy proceedings were pending and the property and right of possession to the land was in the trustee in bankruptcy. In consequence it was held that the plaintiffs in ejectment were not entitled 'to recover the possession of the property even against one who had simply the naked possession thereof.' This writ of error was then prosecuted.

But one ground for reversal is relied on, viz., that the supreme court of Kansas erred in deciding that the sale of land in Kansas by a trustee, in pursuance of an order of the court of bankruptcy for the southern district of Illinois, made in original proceedings pending in that court, was void and did not convey to the purchaser any interest to such land.

The state court held that the contracts between the bankrupt and the state of Kansas, evidenced by the certificates of purchase in question, conveyed to the purchaser an equitable title to the land and was real estate. We follow this construction of the local law; hence the only question with which we are concerned was thus stated by the court below: 'Whether the sale of the certificate by the trustee in bankruptcy conveyed any interest in the land, or whether it was necessary, in order to devest the certificate holder of his title in the land, to appraise and advertise the land itself for sale, and sell it in the method provided by the laws of the United States.' [82 Kan. 594, 109 Pac. 696.] The court, while conceding that the adjudication in bankruptcy 'conveyed this land and all the property of Hagener to the trustee,' yet decided that 'the court had no jurisdiction over the land. Its jurisdiction was in personam.' And apparently having in mind the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1893, chap. 225, 27 Stat. at L. 751, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 710, regulating sales of real estate by courts of the United States, it was declared that the...