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6 Watts 451

Connelly v. Nedrow

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided September 15, 1837

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1837-09-15

This was an action of ejectment, by Bernard Connelly, Jun., against Peter Nedrow. The opinion of the court below was assigned for error. • Baird, president. The plaintiff, in this case, claims the land, by virtue of a treasurer’s sale, made by John Patton, treasurer of the county of Somerset. The deed from Patton to Bernard Connelly and Chauncey Forward, Esq., bears date on the 4th day of September 1826, and was acknowledged in court, on the 6th day of the same month.

Decided 1837-09-15

Per Curiam.

¶1It is settled, that the surplus bond is indispensable; and there is a conclusive reason why a deposit of money should not be taken as a substitute for it. By the act of 1804, it is directed to be a lien on the land, for which the personal security of the treasurer is not an equivalent. Even his sureties would be irresponsible for what would certainly be an unofficial act; for, though the second section of the act of the 13th of March 1815, provides that the treasurer, for the time being, when consummating a sale made by a predecessor, shall execute the deed upon the full discharge and payment of the money or price for which the lands were sold,” it is evident the direction relates to the taxes and costs, and not to the case of a surplus which was not thought of. The clause was evidently penned, by one who had not the precedent provision before him; for it surely could not have been *453meant to give the former owner a lien, under a deed made by the officer who conducted the sale, and personal security, under a deed made by his successor; and as there is no imaginable motive for such a difference, it is not to be intended,

¶2Judgment affirmed.

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