Neligh v. Keene

Decision Date06 August 1884
Citation20 N.W. 277,16 Neb. 407
PartiesJOHN D. NELIGH, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, v. L. M. KEENE, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
CourtNebraska Supreme Court

ERROR to the district court for Antelope county. Tried below before TIFFANY, J.

AFFIRMED.

M McLaughlin and John L. Webster, for plaintiff in error.

John M Thurston and W. H. Munger, for defendant in error.

OPINION

MAXWELL, J.

This is an action of ejectment brought by the plaintiff against the defendant in the district court of Antelope county, to recover the possession of certain real estate in said county. On the trial of the cause the court found for the defendant and dismissed the action.

It appears from the record that in April, 1875, John D. Neligh and wife executed a mortgage upon the real estate in controversy to E. H. Rogers, to secure the payment of a promissory note for the sum of $ 2,040, with interest, which note was due and payable in six months from that date; that default was made in the payment thereof, and in March, 1876, a bill in chancery to foreclose said mortgage was filed in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Nebraska; that Neligh and wife made no defense to the action, and in May, 1876, a decree for the sum of $ 2,318.81, was taken against them by default, and declared a first lien on said real estate; that Neligh thereupon requested and obtained stay of order of sale for the period provided by statute; that after the expiration of the stay, the premises were sold under said decree, the sale thereafter confirmed by the court, and a deed ordered and made to the purchaser. The land was afterwards conveyed by the purchaser, under the decree, to the defendant. It is admitted that there was no appraisement of said property before the sale, and that the notice of sale was published in a newspaper in Omaha, and that there was no notice published in the county where the land is situated. The plaintiff claims that the sale is void, and the purchaser acquired no title thereby, and that the plaintiff is still the owner of the property.

Sec. 1 of the act of 1875 [Laws, p. 60], for the more "equitable appraisement of real property under judicial sale," provides that: "Whenever, hereafter, execution shall be levied on any lands and tenements, the officer levying the same shall call an inquest of two disinterested freeholders who shall be resident of the county where the lands taken on execution are situated, and administer to them an oath impartially to appraise the interest of the person, persons, or corporation against whom the execution is levied, in the property so levied upon, and such officer, together with said freeholders, shall appraise said interest at its real value in money, and such appraisement shall be signed by such officer and said freeholders respectively." [Comp. Stat., 593.]

Sec. 2 provides in what manner the appraisement is to be made.

It will be observed that the title provides for appraisement of real property under judicial sale, while the act itself provides for sales where an "execution shall be levied on lands and tenements."

A judicial sale is in contemplation of law a sale made pendente lite; a sale in court, and the court is the vendor. Rorer on Judicial Sales, § 1.

The courts of this state have construed the law to apply to all sales of real estate under...

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