Quarry Savings Bank & Trust Co. v. First Nat. Bank of Dewitt

• Decision Date: 14 March 1932
• Docket Number: No. 198.,198.
• Citation: 47 S.W.2d 802
• Parties: QUARRY SAVINGS BANK & TRUST CO. et al. v. FIRST NAT. BANK OF DEWITT.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

47 S.W.2d 802

QUARRY SAVINGS BANK & TRUST CO. et al. v. FIRST NAT. BANK OF DEWITT.

No. 198.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 14, 1932.

Rehearing Denied April 18, 1932.

Appeal from Arkansas Chancery Court, Southern District; Harvey R. Lucas, Chancellor.

Suit by the Quarry Savings Bank & Trust Company and others against the First National Bank of DeWitt. From a decree in favor of the defendant, the plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed.

G. W. Botts, of DeWitt, for appellants.

George E. Pike, of DeWitt, for appellee.

BUTLER, J.

These cases were consolidated in the court below for the purpose of trial and as consolidated are here on appeal.

These are the facts material to the decision of the case: One Luebke, to secure loans from the appellants, executed to each of them mortgages on identical lands, which were duly filed for record on January 29, 1919. Subsequent thereto, being indebted to appellee bank, he executed a mortgage on the same lands to it, subject to the first mortgages, to secure it therefor. All of these debts remaining unpaid, appellants brought their several suits on March 2, 1929, for judgment on their debt and for foreclosure of the mortgage securing them. A decree was rendered in this suit on March 30, 1929, and on May 3d, following, the lands were sold by virtue of the decree and purchased by the appellee for the debts and interest named in the decree and the costs that had accrued.

Between the date of the decree of foreclosure and the date of the sale and purchase of the lands by appellee, appellant paid, to wit, on April 13, 1929, the taxes on the lands which had become due January 1 preceding in the sum of $331.87.

The report of the sale was duly made and the sale confirmed and a commissioner's deed executed and approved in open court on June 10, 1929, by the terms of which deed the lands were conveyed to the appellee in consideration of the payment of the debt, interest and costs aforesaid.

On the 29th day of September, 1929, the appellants brought this suit against the appellee to recover the amounts of taxes paid by them as aforesaid, and asked that they have a lien declared on the lands for the payment thereof. On the hearing of the case, the above state of facts was developed and the chancellor made a general finding in favor of the defendant.

Generally, in judicial sales, the rule of caveat emptor applies by reason of which the purchaser is charged with full knowledge of all of the facts affecting the title to the lands purchased and takes it subject to all legal or equitable incumbrances. Guynn et al. v. McCauley, 32 Ark. 112; Green v. Maddox, 97 Ark. 403, 134 S. W. 931; Miller v. Henry, 105 Ark. 265, 150 S. W. 700, Ann. Cas. 1914D, 754.

The taxes which became due January 1 were a lien on the land, Crawford & Moses' Dig. § 10023, and in discharging this lien appellants were not volunteers as contended by the appellee, for the reason that the payment of the taxes was necessary to protect their interest, and ordinarily they would be entitled to be subrogated to the state's lien for reimbursement. New York Life Ins. Co. v. Nichol, 170 Ark. 791, 281 S. W. 21; First National Bank of Mineral Springs v. Hayes-McKean Hdw. Co., 178 Ark. 429, 10 S.W.(2d) 866; Federal Land Bank of St. Louis v. Richland Farming Co., 180 Ark. 442, 21 S.W.(2d) 954.

This...