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57 Ala. 435

Fuller v. Hollis

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1876

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1876-12-15

Heard before the Hon. HüPJOSCO Austill. Daniel M. Brewer purchased of E. B. Wilkerson certain lands mentioned in the bill, and executed to Wilkerson his promissory noté tlierefor, whereupon Wilkerson gave bond for - title to Brewer.

Relies on Wells v. Morrow · Boyd v. Beck · Conner v. Banks

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently November 1972

10 state decisions

2018761880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

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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STONE, J.

¶1A deed may be delivered as an escrow, to any person other than the grantee, and does not become a -conveyance so long as it remains in that condition, or until the condition is performed upon which it is to take effect. Delivery is essential to the execution of a deed, and until -delivered, it is no deed.—Frisley v. McCarty, 1 Stew & Por. 56; Firemen’s Ins. Co. v. McMillan, 29 Ala. 147. Such delivery may be shown by positive proof, or by circumstances. .“See McClure v. Colclaugh, 17 Ala. 89; Ward v. Ross, 1 Stew. 136; but to be effective as a conveyance, it must appear from ■the circumstances that the deed has passed from the grantor with the intention of actual delivery to the grantee.—See Houston v. Stanton, 11 Ala. 413; McMorris v. Crawford, 15 Ala. 271; Trippe v.John, 15 Ala. 117.

¶2The pleadings and evidence in this record show that the deed of Wilkerson to Brewer never was delivered to the ■latter, but remained with Hollis as an escrow. This case • then stands precisely as the contract was first made, namely: Mr. Brewer in possession, holding only a bond for title, and a large part of the purchase-money unpaid, Mr. Hollis being the owner of the claim. In such ca,se, a purchaser from Brewer, or, at sheriff’s sale of his interest, can, in no sense, be classed a purchaser without notice. To raise that pre- ■ sumption, a fundamental condition is, that Brewer must have had a legal title.—Chapman v. Churm, 5 Ala. 397; Kelley v. Payne, 18 Ala. 371; Bradford v. Harper, 25 Ala. 337; Owen v. Moore, 14 Ala. 640; Wells v. Morrow, 38 Ala. 125; Roper v. McCook, 7 Ala. 318; White v. Stover, 10 Ala. 441; Plowman v. Riddle, 14 Ala. 167. In such case there is a vendor’s lien for the purchase-money, and such lien will not be lost by -the assignee extending the day of payment, and taking a new _note for the purchase-money in his own name.—Conner v. *438Banks, 18 Ala. 42; see Boyd v. Beck, 29 Ala. 703; Flinn v. Barclay, 15 Ala. 626.

¶3We think the chancellor reached the right conclusion, and-on correct reasoning.

¶4Affirmed.

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