Moore v. Green

• Decision Date: 20 July 1893
• Parties: MOORE et al. v. GREEN et al.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

17 S.E. 872

90 Va. 181

MOORE et al.

v.GREEN et al.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

July 20, 1893.

Vendor's Lien —Decree of Sale — Entry of Before Entire Amount Due—Jurisdiction of Defendants—Conclusiveness of Decree. L A decree of sale to enforce a vendor's lien is not defective because a portion of the amount is not yet due, where the date at which it will become due is given.

2. A decree entered on a bill taken as confessed, which recites that all the defendants have been served with process, is, in the absence of anything in the record to the contrary, conclusive of the jurisdiction of defendants.

Appeal from circuit court, Smyth county; John A. Kelley, Judge.

Bill by one Green and others against Moore and others to enforce a vendor's lien. Plaintiffs had decree, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.

A.M.Dickenson, for appellants.

Blair & Blair and Walker & Caldwell, for appellees.

LEWIS, P. On the 12th of September, 1890, the appellees conveyed to the appellants certain real estate, situate in Smyth county, for $35,000. Of this sum, $11,-666.66 was to be paid in cash; the residue, in three equal installments, of $7,777.77, payable, respectively, at 6, 12, and 18 months from the 15th of November, 1890, with interest. The appellants subsequently sold the land to Morris, Turner, and Timlin, by whom the cash payment above mentioned was paid to the appellees, pursuant to the contract between the parties. In October, 1891, the note for the first deferred payment being due and unpaid, the appellees filed their bill to enforce the vendor's lien reserved on the face of their deed of the 12th of September, 1890. Process to answer the bill was issued, and, as the record recites, was duly served on all the defendants. The cause having been matured, a decree of sale was entered on the 15th of December, 1891, on the bill taken for confessed, as to all the defendants. By this decree it was adjudged that " the defendants are indebted to the plaintiffs in the sums named in their bill, to wit, to the amount of $23,-333.31, with interest thereon from November 15, 1890, of which sum $15,555.54, with interest, is due and payable, and $7,777.77, with interest, will be due and payable on the 15th day of May, 1892." Subsequently, the commissioner of sale filed his report, and afterwards, at the April term, 1892, the appellants answered. They also, at the same term, excepted to the report of sale on the ground of inadequacy of price, which exception the court, by a decree...