{
  "id": 8696799,
  "name": "WILLIAM BROWN and others v. WILLIAM COBLE and others",
  "name_abbreviation": "Brown v. Coble",
  "decision_date": "1877-01",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "391",
  "last_page": "395",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "76 N.C. 391"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "71 N. C. 420",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "N.C.",
      "opinion_index": -1
    },
    {
      "cite": "73 N. C. 420",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "N.C.",
      "case_ids": [
        8693785
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/nc/73/0420-01"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": {
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    "simhash": "1:e7d0ac3d16c8ed6f",
    "word_count": 1504
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:21:57.000998+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "WILLIAM BROWN and others v. WILLIAM COBLE and others."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "RodMAN, J.\nIt is argued for the plaintiffs that Goley who purchased at the sale by the Master on 13th December, 1862, acquired no title, because the Court of Equity never ordered the purchase money to be collected and never ordered a deed to be made to the purchaser.\n1. When a Court orders a sale on a certain credit, as of twelve months in this case, and a sale is so made and the bond of the purchaser is taken payable at the end of the credit given, and the sale is confirmed, the Master is authorized by a necessary implication to receive the money when it falls due; for it is the right of every debtor to pay at that time. It is not his right to pay before. The creditor, however, may waive his right and consent to receive payment before maturity. A Clerk and Master may do this without an order of the Court; or at least if he does it, he and the sureties to his bond become liable for the sum received. This was decided in Broughton v. Haywood, Phil. 380.\nIn this case as the full amount of the note was paid without discount the prepayment did not damage the plaintiffs.\nNo question has been made as to the effect of the payment having been made in Confederate currency and therefore no observations are necessary on it.\nThere is no allegation that the payment was fraudulently made as in Dockery v. French, 73 N. C. 420.\n2. An order that the Master make a deed to the purchaser is not necessary after the \"payment of the purchase money and a deed made without such order passes the title. The withholding of the title can have no other object- after the sale has been confirmed, than to secure the purchase money and when that is paid, the purchaser, in the absence of special circumstances, has an absolute right to a conveyance of the legal estate. Such an order is both usual and proper. But ordinarily when the money has been paid and there is no special reason making it unfit, it is an order of course. Its advantage is that it is an adjudication of the Court that it is in all respects a fit case for such an order, binding the parties to the action and protecting the Master and the purchaser.\nWithout such an order the Master and the purchaser take on themselves the risk of determining that the case is one in which such an order would be fit and proper.\nIf the case be really such, then the order being of course will be presumed to have been made and its actual entry of record is unnecessary.\nIu the present ease no fact is stated and no reason is assigned why the order would not have been of course, at any time since the payment- of the money, and why it should not be so now.\n3. The plaintiffs further contend that the deed to Goley did not convey any title to him, because the description of the land in the petition for partition was too indefinite. That part of the petition which describes the land is as follows; \u201cThat said John Brown (the ancestor of the petitioners) died seized and possessed of a tract of land in said County of Guilford, on the waters of \u2018Stinking Quarter/ adjoining the lands of-.\u201d The order of sale only describes it as \u201cthe said land.\u201d The description in the deed from the Master is by metes and bounds, and the deed recites that the sale -was made on the premises. The description in the petition is not so defective that it may not be possible to identify with certainty the land meant. It is in. a certain County, on a certain stream and is that piece of land of which John Brown died seized and possessed. Appropriate evidence either of written title in John Brown or of actual possession by him would be competent to ascertain the land. If indeed by mistake or otherwise the deed from the Master covered land of the plaintiffs, not described in the petition or order of sale, no doubt they would have a remedy.\nBut the case states that the land sued for is that which was sold under the proceedings for partition.\n4. Without considering that oiie or two of the plaintiff\u00bb are alleged to have compromised and released their rights, we are of the opinion upon the reasons above, that the plaintiffs are not entitled to recover the land from the defendant Coble now in possession.\n5. The plaintiffs in their complaint demand that if they shall be adjudged not entitled to the land, they may have-judgment against the administrator of the deceased Clerk and Master for the purchase money.\nWe cannot consider in this action what their rights in. this respect may be, because we think it clear that a claim to the laud cannot be joined with a claim against the Master for the purchase money.\nIn the first demand, the representative of the Master has. no interest, and in the second the other defendants have-none.\nJudgment affirmed and action dismissed without prejudice-to any rights of the plaintiffs or of any of them against the representative of the deceased Clerk and Master, or against the. sureties to his official bond.\nPee Curiam. Judgment affirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "RodMAN, J."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Messrs. Scott \u00a7 Caldwell, for plaintiffs.",
      "Messrs. Dillard $ Gilmer, for defendants."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "WILLIAM BROWN and others v. WILLIAM COBLE and others.\nPraetiee \u2014 Sale Under Decree of Court \u2014 Description of Land \u2014 Joinder of Action.\n1. It does not require an order of Court to authorize the bona fide receipt of money by a Clerk and Master upon a bond before its maturity, given for the purchase ofland at a sale under decree of Court which has. been duly eontirmed.\n2. After the payment of the purchase money for land sold under decree-of Court an order of Court is not necessary to enable the Master to make a valid deed to the purchaser, in such case, however, the Master and purchaser take upon themselves the risk of determining that, the case is one in which such an order would be lit and proper.\n3. \u201cThat John Brown, the ancestor of the petitioners died seized and' possessed of a tract ofland in said County of Guilford, on the waters of \u2018Stinking Quarter \u2019 adjoining the lands of-,\u201d is not so defective a description that it may not bo possible to identify with certainty the land meant.\n4. A claim for the recovery of real estate which has been sold under decree of a Court of Equity can not be joined in the same ac\u2019.ion with a. claim against the Clerk and Master for the purchase money.\n(Broughton v. Haywood, Phil. 310; Dockery?. French, 71 N. C. 420,. cited, distinguished and approved.)\nCivil Action, tried at Spring Term, 1876, of G-uiliobj\u00bb Superior Court, before Kerr, J.\nThis suit was instituted to recover a tract of land, which had been sold by the late Clerk and Master, under a Decree* of the late Court of Equity for said County, made at Fall Term, 1862, in a proceeding for partition, on a credit of twelve months, when one W. E. Goley became the purchaser at $1,575 and gave bond and security for the payment-thereof. The money \u2014 Confederate currency \u2014 was paid before it was due and thereupon the Master executed a deed to .the purchaser.\nAfter Goley\u2019s death, the said land was sold by order \u2022of the County Court for assets, whenEerebee Goley his widow became the purchaser, obtained a deed and conveyed to the defendant William Coble.\nIt did not appear that there was any order of the Court of Equity to collect and distribute the proceeds of sale, or to \u2022execute a deed for the laud.\nThe original petition for the sale of said land for partition .and. the papers in the case in said Court of Equity were transferred by the x>etitioners therein, who are the present plaintiffs, to the Superior Court, on January 3, 1872, and at December Term, 1873, of said Court, they moved for judgment against the sureties on the bond of the purchaser \u25a0(G-oley.)\nThe docket of said Court did not show that any disposition of the case had been made under said motion.\nThe plaintiffs demanded that the deed from the Clerk .and Master to Goley be cancelled and that they be let into possession of the landor if upon consideration of the whole \u2022case the Court should be of opinion that they were not so entitled, then in that event they demanded judgment against the administrator of the late Clerk and Master for the value \u2022of the money received by his intestate.\nThe defendants insisted that under the proceedings had they were entitled to the said possession.\nUpon the issues submitted and under the instructions of His Honor, the jury rendered a verdict for defendants. Judgment. Appeal by plaintiffs.\nMessrs. Scott \u00a7 Caldwell, for plaintiffs.\nMessrs. Dillard $ Gilmer, for defendants."
  },
  "file_name": "0391-01",
  "first_page_order": 403,
  "last_page_order": 407
}