Cleek v. McGuffin

Citations

• 89 Va. 324
• 15 S.E. 896
• 1892 Va. LEXIS 103

Syllabus

<p>Judicial Sale—Liability of purchaser’s sureties—Res judicata.—Land devised to Mrs. McG. was sold to her husband to pay testator’s debts, and C and others were sureties for the purchase-money. He failed, and a commissioner ascertained those debts to be 83,038.63, and that husband was entitled to the balance of $1,812.04, “ in right of his wife.” Report was confirmed, and the land decreed to be resold, unless husband pay the $3,038.63 in a stated period. He did not comply. The land was resold, with the sureties’ knowledge, for enough to pay the debts. Mrs. McG. afterwards obtained an absolute divorce, and judgment w'as rendered in her behalf against the sureties for the $1,812.04, with which husband had been credited “ in right of his wife.”</p> <p>Held :</p> <p>Husband, as tenant by the curtesy, was entitled only to the use o the surplus of $1,812.04 during the marriage, because that surplus continued impressed with the character of realty, and the decree relied on as an adjudication that the $3,038.63 was all the sureties were liable for was only an adjudication of the amount necessary to discharge the testator’s debts.</p>