Price v. Watts, 24369

• Citation: 158 S.E.2d 406,223 Ga. 805
• Decision Date: 22 November 1967
• Docket Number: No. 24369,24369
• Parties: Rodney B. PRICE v. W. P. WATTS et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Georgia

Page 406

158 S.E.2d 406

223 Ga. 805

Rodney B. PRICE v. W. P. WATTS et al.

No. 24369.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Nov. 22, 1967.

Greene, Buckley, DeRieux, Moore & Jones, John D. Jones, C. Richard McQueen, H. Thaxton Monk, Jr., Ray Vizethann, Atlanta, for appellant.

Perren & Lane, W. Robert Lane, Dallas, for appellees. Syllabus Opinion by the Court

NICHOLS, Justice.

The present action is one to have a deed to secure debt canceled of record as to the plaintiff and thus remove a cloud from his title to the property described. The allegations of the plaintiff's petition show that on June 15, 1964, the defendants sold described property to Mrs. Katherine B. Hamilton. On April 21, 1965, Mrs. Hamilton sold the same property to the plaintiff and the transfer was recorded on April 30, 1965. Thereafter, on July 19, 1965, the defendants had recorded a deed to secure debt (dated June 15, 1964) from Mrs. Hamilton to the defendants which had been executed contemporaneously with the deeds from the defendants to Mrs. Hamilton. After the defendants' answer was filed the plaintiff filed a motion for a summary judgment based upon the pleadings and supported by depositions of the plaintiff and the defendant Mrs. Watts. After the petition was filed one of the defendants, W. P. Watts, died and his executrix, the other defendant, was made a party in her representative capacity as well as in her individual capacity. The trial court overruled the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and it is from this judgment that the plaintiff appeals. Held:

1. "Every deed conveying lands shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the county where the land lies. The record may be made at any time, but such deed loses its priority over a subsequent recorded deed from the same vendor, taken without notice of the existence of the first.' Code § 29-401. 'Deeds, mortgages, and liens of all kinds, which are required by law to be recorded in the office of the clerk of the superior court, shall, as against the interests of third parties acting in good faith and without notice, who may have acquired a transfer or lien binding the same property, take effect only from the time they are filed for record in the clerk's office.' Code § 67-2501. These sections are to be construed together, and do not apply in a contest between deeds unless the junior grantee is a bona fide purchaser for value. Deen v. Williams, 128 Ga. 265, 266(2), 57 S.E. 427; Byrd v. Aspinwall, 108 Ga. 1(1), 33 S.E. 688; and see Toole v. Toole, 107 Ga. 472(1), 33 S.E. 686.' Minor v. Georgia Kraft Company, 219 Ga. 434, 134 S.E.2d 19.

The record shows without dispute that the plaintiff was the holder of a junior recorded deed obtained for a valuable...