Hartzell v. Whitmore

Citations

• 271 Pa. 575
• 115 A. 840
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 761

Syllabus

<p>Trust and trustees — Trust ex maleficio — Sheriff’s sale — Fraud by bidder — Declarations—Evidence—Equity.</p> <p>1. Where fraud, artifice or trick is resorted to to procure property at .sheriff’s sale at an under-value, the purchaser there takes as trustee for the person misled.</p> <p>2. Parol declarations made by a purchaser at sheriff’s sale, that he was bidding for another, are admissible to establish a trust for the person for whom the purchaser declared he was bidding.</p> <p>3. A purchaser at a sheriff’s sale will be declared a trustee' for the defendants in'the execution, where, prior to the sale, he stated that he would buy in the property for defendants, thereby preventing relatives from raising money to pay off the judgment, that at the sale he persuaded other persons not to bid by stating that he was buying for defendants, and by various other acts brought about a condition by which he was able to buy in the property greatly below its real value.</p>