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56 Ala. 471

Strong v. Waddell

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1876

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1876-12-15

Heard before tbe Hon. B. B. McCraw. Tbe bill in this case was filed on tbe 2d March, 1874, .by James'F. Waddell, against Samuel D. Strong and Aletba F. Strong, his wife; and sought to foreclose a mortgage on a certain tract of land, which the complainant had sold and conveyed, on the date of the mortgage, to Mrs. Strong, taking the note of herself and her husband for the purchase-money, and a mortgage on the land to secure its payment.

Relies on Cullum v. Branch of the Bank of Alabama · Abbott v. Allen · Marks v. Cowles

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently June 1933

23 state decisions

601876188018901900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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BRICKELL, 0. J.

¶1The decree does not fix on the appellant Aletha a personal liability, nor condemn her statutory separate estate, if any she has, to the satisfaction of the mortgage debt. It simply orders a sale of the mortgaged premises for the payment of the purchase-money. A married woman, doubtless, labors under a disability of contracting, so as to bind herself personally; nor can she charge her statutory estate, except in the modes the statute prescribes. But, if she purchases real estate, and executes, jointly with her *473husband, a promissory note for payment of the purchase-money, and a mortgage of the premises as a security for its payment, coverture cannot be interposed in bar of a foreclosure. Otherwise, the disability would operate as an ability to get and keep another’s lands without paying the consideration. — Reeves v. Pylant, at the last term; Cowles v. Marks, 53 Ala. 499 ; Chilton v. Braiden, 2 Black, 458.

¶22. There is no principle, on which a mortgagor, or vendee in possession, can be allowed to set up an outstanding title in another, in bar of a bill for foreclosure, or of a bill to enforce the lien for the payment of the purchase-money. The .mortgagor and the vendee alike stand to the mortgagee and the vendor in the relation of tenant, and are estopped from denying his title. — Bigelow on Estoppel, 382, 373.

¶33. The law ought to be regarded as finally and definitively settled in this State, after the numerous decisions declaring it, that a vendee who has gone into possession, under a deed with covenants of warranty, or a bond stipulating for the conveyance of title with covenants of warranty on the payment of the purchase-money, cannot, unless there was fraud in the sale to him, or the vendor is insolvent, and therefore without ability to respond to his covenants, so long as he remains in possession, either at law or in equity, defend against the payment of the purchase-money. — Magee v. McMillan, 30 Ala. 420.

¶44. If there be no fraud, and no covenant taken to secure the title, the purchaser is remediless. The maxim, caveat emptor, applies. — Abbott v. Allen, 2 Johns. Ch. 523 ; Frost v. Raymond, 2 Caines, 188 ; Cullum v. Br. Bank of Mobile, 4 Ala. 21. If the purchase is made without fraud or warranty, with full knowledge of the defects in the title, the purchaser can have no just ground of defense against the payment of the purchase-money.— Greenleaf v. Cook, 2 Wheaton, 16.

¶5These principles are decisive of this case, covering it in all its aspects, if we inclined to the opinion that the allegations of the answer disclosed any real defect in the title. We are not inclined to that opinion, but waive a consideration of the question involved, until it is necessary to the decision of a cause.

¶6The decree of the chancellor is affirmed.

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