Spillers v. Clay, 17430
| Decision Date | 29 May 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 17430,17430 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | J. C. SPILLERS, Appellant, v. Clarence E. CLAY, Respondent. Bernis A. EVANS, Plaintiff, v. J. C. EVANS et al., Defendants. |
J. W. Hudgens, Jr., Greenville, for appellant.
Leatherwood, Walker, Todd & Mann, Greenville, for respondent.
In a suit in the Greenville County Court for partition and sale of certain real estate, the Honorable W. B. McGowan, Judge of that Court, issued a decree directing that the property be sold at public auction by the Master for Greenville County. The sale was thereafter held in the courtroom of the county courthouse under the direction of the Master, who was present, Mr. Grady Foster being the auctioneer. Upon the property being knocked down to Mr. J. C. Spillers for twenty-five hundred ($2,500.00) dollars, Mr. Clarence E. Clay, an attorney of the Greenville bar, who had represented several of the defendants in the partition suit and who had been bidding for one of them, immediately arose from his seat in the rear of the courtroom and stated that his was the high bid at twenty-four hundred ($2,400.00). Mr. Foster informed him that Mr. Spillers had bid twenty-five hundred ($2,500.00) dollars and was at that figure the highest bidder, and that he had knocked the property down to him. Mr. Clay thereupon requested the Master to allow him to increase his bid, stating that he had not heard Mr. Spillers' bid of twenty-five hundred ($2,500.00) dollars; but the Master declined to reopen the bidding. On the following day, upon Mr. Clay's petition, Judge McGowan issued his order directing the interested parties, including the Master and Mr. Spillers, to show cause why the Master should not be enjoined from closing the sale and directed to readvertise the property. The matter was thereafter heard before Judge McGowan, who, after hearing testimony, issued his order dated October 26, 1957, setting aside the action of the auctioneer in knocking the property down to Mr. Spillers, and directing the Master to readvertise the property for sale on the earliest possible sales day, with instructions to the auctioneer to start the bidding at twenty-five hundred ($2,500.00) dollars. From that order Mr. Spillers appeals.
In our consideration of the order under appeal, we must bear in mind that the cause was equitable in nature; that respondent's petition was addressed to the discretion of the court; and that the court has found, as a fact, that respondent was, at the time of appellant's last bid, under an excusable misapprehension of the facts.
The sale was held, as before stated, in the courtroom. In addition to the petition sale in question and another judicial sale that preceded it, numerous sales for delinquent taxes were to be made, and a large crowd was on hand. That the sales were handled quite expeditiously is apparent from the fact that in a little less than three hours fifty-three pieces of property were sold. The Master was present, with his secretary, who was to handle receipt of the cash deposits usually required in Masters' sales, together with other clerical details. Mr. Clay's clients and the other parties to the partition suit are Negroes, and they were sitting in the rear of the courtroom as was customary; Mr. Clay was sitting with them. Mr. Spillers, who owned property adjoining that involved in the partition sale, was seated nearer the front.
Mr. Foster the auctioneer, testified that after Mr. Clay had bid twenty-four hundred, Mr. Spillers had bid twenty-five hundred, whereupon Foster had pointed to Spillers, repeated his bid three times, and then announced that the property was sold to him; and that thereupon Clay immediately came forward and protested to the Master.
Mr. Clay testified that he had thought his own bid was the high one, and that the auctioneer was trying to get a bid of twenty-five hundred; that he had not heard Mr. Spillers' bid of twenty-five hundred; that his first knowledge of the latter's bid was when the auctioneer announced that the property was sold to Mr. Spillers; and that he had been instructed by his clients, and was prepared, to bid substantially more than twenty-five hundred dollars for the property.
The Master testified that at the time of Mr. Spillers' final bid his attention had been distracted from the bidding because a person who had bid in a piece of property at the sale immediately preceding had come up to make his deposit and was asking questions of the Master's secretary, who in turn had asked the Master a question; and that as a result of this distraction he had not followed his usual practice of...
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Ex parte Moore
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