¶1concurring. I should like to discuss two cases, not mentioned by the majority, which seems to answer the argument made in the dissenting opinion.
¶2In George v. Norwood, 77 Ark. 216, 91 S. W. 557 (1905), the property was sold at a public sale for $4,000. One of the parties objected to confirmation, on the ground that the price was grossly inadequate. The objector offered to bid $5,000 at a resale. The chancellor offered to permit the successful bidder to increase his bid to $5,000, but the bidder refused to do so. The chancellor then set the sale aside and accepted the party’s higher bid of $5,000. We first observed that a judicial sale should not be set aside for mere inadequacy of price unless the inadequacy “be so great as to shock the conscience or raise a presumption of fraud or unfairness.” We then went on to point out that a court does not have an arbitrary right to refuse to confirm a judicial sale, saying:
“'Courts have adopted as a wise public policy, the rule that confidence in the stability of judicial sales should be maintained, so that competitive bidding may be encouraged by the assurance that, in the absence of fraud or misconduct, the highest bidder will be accepted as the purchaser of the property offered for sale. And, while it is often said that the accepted bidder at such a sale acquires no independent rights until the sale be confirmed by the court, and that the court may exercise a discretion in either confirming or rejecting the sale, yet this discretion must be exercised according to fixed rules, and not arbitrarily, and the bidder has the right to insist upon its exercise, in this manner only. He can insist that his purchase be not set aside by the court upon reasons which are condemned.”
¶3In reversing the chancellor’s decree we closed our opinion with these words:
“If the chancellor had, under the proof, approved this sale, our duty to affirm his decision would be plain, for it is undisputed that the sale was regularly made in accordance with the order of the court, and was free from any fraud or misconduct, and the evidence shows that the price bid was not inadequate. .
“That being true, the purchaser had the right to insist upon a confirmation of the sale, and it is equally our duty to protect that right and to reverse a decision of the chancellor denying it. In other words, the decision refusing to confirm the sale under the proof presented by the record can not be said to be proper exercise of the discretion of the court, and must be reversed.
“The decree is therefore reversed, and the cause remanded, with directions to confirm the sale to appellant upon compliance by him with the terms of his bid.”
¶4Thus the George case unmistakably holds that mere inadequacy of price (which is all that is shown in the ease at bar) is not a sufficient basis for tbe chancellor’s refusal to confirm a judicial sale and, further, that we will reverse such a decree and direct that the sale be confirmed.
¶5The same principle was applied in Federal Land Bank v. Floyd, 187 Ark. 616, 61 S. W. 2d 449 (1933), which I cite because there as here the highest bidder was the judgment creditor, who merely credited his bid upon the judgment, leaving a deficiency. Upon testimony that the. property had brought only half its value the chancellor refused confirmation and ordered a resale. We held that the highest bidder had a vested right to confirmation, saying: “Therefore, it seems that this court is committed to the doctrine that a purchaser at a commissioner’s sale takes a vested interest by reason of the purchase, and confirmation follows as a matter of right [my italics], unless it be found that fraud entered into the transaction or else the price bid and offered was so grossly inadequate as to shock one’s sense of justice.” Upon that reasoning we reversed the decree and re-nq.anded the cause with a direction that the sale be confirmed.
¶6The foregoing cases rebut the novel suggestion that a chancellor may arbitrarily set aside a judicial sale, for no announced reason, just because the term of court has not expired. If that were so, the purchaser’s vested right to confirmation would often be meaningless, since more often than not judicial sales are submitted for confirmation at the same term of court as that in which the order of sale was made.
¶7Indeed, to accept this same-term-of-court notion would lead to an untenable result: If the chancellor refused to confirm the sale, for inadequacy of price, and the successful bidder took an appeal from that refusal, we would reverse the decree and direct that the sale be confirmed — exactly as we did in the George and Floyd, cases, supra. But if, as here, the chancellor first confirmed the sale, then he conld within the term exercise his unlimited discretion to set aside the decree of confirmation and order a resale, with no possibility of a reversal by this court. To state such a proposition is of course to answer it.
¶8JohN A. FoglemaN, Justice dissenting. I dissent because I feel that the majority has not given due consideration to (1) the fact that the action of the trial court was taken during the term of court at which the order of confirmation of the commissioner’s sale was entered and (2) that the sale was made to the plaintiff-mortgagee in the foreclosure suit. I would agree with the result reached if either one of these facts were not involved. There can be no doubt that the trial court had the power to set aside its order confirming the commissioner’s sale during the term at which it was rendered. Wofford v. Young, 173 Ark. 802, 293 S. W. 725; Union & Planters’ Bank & Trust Co. v. Pope, 176 Ark. 1023, 5 S. W. 2d 330. The extent of this control by the court of its judgments has been stated in Stinson v. Stinson, 203 Ark. 888, 159 S. W. 2d 446, as follows:
“ … Courts in this state, having absolute control of their judgments and decrees during the term at which rendered might change, modify or set them aside on their own motion and without requiring the formality of a motion to do so and without any notice whatever to the parties in the case. ’ ’
¶9It has been held that a court may set aside a judgment during the term at which it was rendered without even hearing any evidence. In Union Sawmill Co. v. Langley, 188 Ark. 316, 66 S. W. 2d 300, it was said:
“We have repeatedly held that, during the term of court at which a judgment is rendered, the court has the inherent power to set aside the judgment, and it may do so without stating any cause. Appellant refers to the statute and numerous authorities, but they all refer to setting aside judgment after the term of court in which they were rendered. We know of no case, and our attention has been called to none, that prohibits a court from controlling its orders and judgments during the term in which they were entered. It therefore becomes unnecessary to set out the evidence taken on the motion to set aside the judgment. It was proper, of course, for the court to hear evidence, if he wished to do so, in order to determine whether the judgement should be set aside.”
¶10A trial court may also set aside a judgment during the term without stating or assigning any reason. Hill v. Wilson, 216 Ark. 179, 224 S. W. 2d 797; Whaley v. Whaley, 224 Ark. 632, 275 S. W. 2d 634. In Karoley v. A. R. & T. Electronics, Inc., 235 Ark. 609, 363 S. W. 2d 120, it was said that a chancery court has the power to set aside its judgment rendered within the same term, on its own motion and without notice. It has further been held that a probate court has full power to set aside any order it had made at the same term, on its own initiative. Ozment v. Mann, 235 Ark. 901, 363 S. W. 2d 129.
¶11In Browning v. Berg, 196 Ark. 595, 118 S. W. 2d 1017, this court rejected the arguments that the rule is subject to the limitation that a chancery court may not set aside a judgment or decree without good cause being shown therefor and that the trial court may be reversed for abuse of its discretion in so doing. There it was said:
“It may be urged that the language in the Langley Case, ‘it may do so without stating any cause,’ impliedly holds there must be cause, but that such cause need not be stated by the court. In the instant case the chancellor, at the term from which this appeal comes, explained what his purpose was. Yet, regardless of the apparent sufficiency or insufficiency of the reason, the fact remains that it was the court’s intention to set the decree aside, and this right is not to be denied. A sufficient purpose was stated: ‘to enable the defendants to present the matter at the coming* term of court. ’ ’ ’
¶12Moss Tie Company v. Miller, 169 Ark. 657, 276 S. W. 586, is the only case I have been able to find where this court has reversed a trial court’s action setting aside a judgment during the term at which it was rendered. There, the court set aside its judgment of dismissal which had been granted on motion of the plaintiff, who then moved to have the judgment set aside. This opinion states that a court can only set aside a judgment for good cause shown. The effect of this decision as authority is eliminated by the opinion in Browning v. Berg, supra.
¶13Application of the rule in cases involving foreclosure sales is no novelty. In Security Bank of Branson, Missouri v. Speer, 203 Ark. 562, 157 S. W. 2d 775, this court affirmed an order of a chancery court cancelling an order of sale and report of sale and divesting all rights of the mortgagor who purchased at the commissioner’s sale, and permitting mortgagees to redeem. The order was made at the same term of court and without notice to the plaintiff-purchaser. This court, in answering its own question as to the power of the court in this regard, said:
“There appears to be no rule of law better settled than that courts have the inherent power to control, or to set aside, their judgments or decrees, without assigning cause, at the same term at which they were rendered. ’ ’
¶14No cause whatever for the setting aside of the decree was mentioned in that case.
¶15It is well established that the setting aside of foreclosure sales may be improper when the purchaser is a stranger to the ease but proper when the purchaser is a party to the ease. Griffin v. Solomon, 237 Ark. 653, 375 S. W. 2d 232.
¶16The majority relies principally on the case of Free v. Harris, 181 Ark. 644, 27 S. W. 2d 510. The quotations from that opinion are probably dicta. They are of little value as precedent because the court found that the preponderance of the evidence in that case showed that the price received for the lands was fair and reasonable. The appeal from the order denying confirmation was taken by the purchaser at the commissioner’s sale. He had not theretofore been a party to the action.
¶17The quotation from Union & Planters’ Bank & Trust Co. v. Pope, 176 Ark. 1023, 5 S. W. 2d 330, if not dictum, is also of little value as precedent here. This court affirmed an order setting aside the sale made without any notice having been given to the appellant, who was the plaintiff and the purchaser at the commissioner’s sale. The sale included an interest of one of the mortgagors in lands which had been excepted from the provisions of the mortgage.
¶18I fail to see the application of Summars v. Wilson, 205 Ark. 923, 171 S. W. 2d 944, to the facts in this case. The “proof-text” quoted therefrom in the majority opinion relates to the denial of confirmation to a third-party purchaser. The sale was made in a partition suit. The order of sale, the sale, an order disapproving it, the application of the purchaser to set aside the order of disapproval, an order setting aside the disapproval and approving the sale, and an order vacating the approval of the sale and reinstating the order of disapproval were all made during the same term of court. The third-party purchaser, one Summars, had not paid the purchase money and he did not have the purchase money on the day of- the final order reinstating the disapproval of the sale to him. In the interval between the original disapproval of the sale and the motion of the purchaser to set aside the order of disapproval, the parties to the partition suit had resolved their differences and sold the lands to one McCollum who was not a party to any of the proceedings. McCollum then went into possession of the lands and made a contract with one Wilson relating thereto. On the date the court made its order approving the sale to Summars, the attorney for McCol-lum and Wilson was not present in court. Prior to this action, the judge had announced in open court that no order would be made in any case in which this attorney was interested. This court said that the order setting aside the original order disapproving the sale to Sum-mars and approving the sale was properly made to remedy the trial judge’s inadvertence in entering the order during his momentary forgetfulness of his announcement. Summars appealed from this order and the refusal of confirmation of his purchase. The portion of the court’s opinion quoted in the majority opinion has nothing whatever to do with the setting aside of the order relating to the sale. It relates only to the confirmation of the judicial sale. I do not agree that the Speer case was construed in this case as the majority state, nor do I agree that the Speer case was overruled. Six years later it was cited as authority for a trial court’s setting aside of a judgment during the term at which rendered, without assigning any cause. Hill v. Wilson, 216 Ark. 179, 224 S. W. 2d 797.
¶19I recognize the importance of the stability and integrity of judicial sales. If the purchaser at the foreclosure sale were a third-party bona fide purchaser for value and this litigation were between him and the mortgagor, I would view the matter differently.
¶20I do not think that the court is justified in treating this case as one where the rights of a third party have intervened. In the first place, a third party has not asserted any rights. It is still a suit between mortgagor and mortgagee. In the second place, appellant makes no assertion in pleading, proof, or brief that the property has been sold to a bona fide purchaser for value. Thus, this cannot be a ground for reversal. In the third place, there is no evidence before the court that such is the case. Appellant successfully objected to evidence offered by appellees which might have shown that a third party had purchased the property.
¶21On rebuttal, one of appellees, Ethel Ford Guy, was called as a witness. When she was asked by her attorney whether this property had been sold, appellant’s objection that this was improper as rebuttal was sustained. Then an offer of proof was tendered for the record. In this offer she stated that one Margie Smith had the property and paid $1,150 for it. Cross-examination on this offer revealed that this witness based her testimony on information she received from her daughter. The daughter, Gloria Guy, then testified that Margie Smith was supposed to own the place now. The court sustained an objection by appellant on the basis that the testimony was not proper rebuttal, but again permitted an offer of proof for the record. In this offer she stated that “a lady that answered the phone” advised her that the property was sold and that Margie Smith told her the amount for which it was sold was $1,150. After this offer the court properly sustained a further objection to this testimony on the basis that it was hearsay. Even this offered evidence fails to show a sale of the property by appellant Lucy Lee Robbins.
¶22A concurring opinion calls attention to Federal Land Bank v. Floyd, 187 Ark. 616, 61 S. W. 2d 449. Emphasis is placed upon the statement in that case that a purchaser at a commissioner’s sale takes a vested interest by reason of his purchase and confirmation follows as a matter of right, except where fraud is involved or the price was so grossly inadequate as to shock the sense of justice. This language was not used with reference to the court’s setting aside the confirmation of the sale. The court there actually held that the purchaser’s right to confirmation was a vested right in the sense that an act of the legislature passed subsequently to the sale could not impair his right to confirmation and that this right must be measured by the law in force prior to the passage of the act. At any rate, this case was decided nearly ten years before the decision in Security Bank of Branson, Missouri v. Speer, supra. Certainly the rights of the Federal Land Bank in the Floyd case were no more vested than the rights of the Security Bank in the Speer case. If the Floyd case requires the treatment suggested in the concurring opinion, it was overruled by the Speer case which seems to me to be in irreconcilable conflict with that suggestion.
¶23I would affirm the order of the chancery court.