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58 Ala. 647

Watson v. Oates

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1877

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1877-12-15

Heard before the Hon. Hueiosco Austell. William C. Oates, the appellee, as sole complainant, filed the bill in this cause on the 8th of February, 1875, against J. F. Watson, appellant, alleging that he was, in 1874, appointed guardian of Pocahontas Long, since married, and with whom he has made final settlement, and William B., and Mamie Long, children of James B. Long, deceased; that on the 23d of October, 1873, Mary Long, as administra-trix of J ames B. Long, deceased, by…

Relies on Heirs of Holman v. Bank of Norfolk · McMaken v. McMaken · Chappell v. Doe ex dem. Williamson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently September 1972

14 state decisions

6018771880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

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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BBICKELL, C. J.

¶11. The validity of the special statute authorizing Mrs. Long, in her representative capacity, as administratrix of her deceased husband, to make a private sale of the lands of her said husband and intestate, for the purposes of division and distribution to and among the heirs to whom they had descended, is supported by former decisions of this court, which we have neither the power nor inclination to disturb.. — Chappell v. Doe, 49 Ala. 153; Holman v. Bank of Norfolk, 12 Ala. 369. The enactment of such laws was, under former constitutions, frequent; the titles to an immense amount of the retd property of the State depend upon their validity, and it is too late to reopeD the discussion of the power of the legislature to enact them.

¶22. We concur in the view which the Chancellor must have taken, that the appellants have failed to establish that there was any fraud or misrepresentation in the sale, or that they had any just claim to damages because possession was not earlier surrendered to them; and if the proper parties were before the court, the decree would be affirmed. The bill is, in this respect, defective. The legal title to the lands descended to the heirs of James B. Long, who must be parties, before the court can render a decree subjecting them to sale for the payment of the purchase-money due from the appellant. No objection was taken to their absence, in the Chancery Court, but the rule has long prevailed in this court, that the omission of indispensable parties is an error compelling a reversal, though objection has not been previously taken — McMaken v. McMaken, 18 Ala. 576.

¶3*650The decree is reversed and the cause remanded, that the proper parties be made.

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