Hunter v. State Bank

Citations

• 65 Fla. 202
• 61 So. 497

Syllabus

<p>1. A—a bank—secured a judgment against P. on the 16th of September, 1908, for $116.78, which was recorded. On the 24th day of January, 1910, H., an uneducated man, supposing that he was executing a mortgage to P. to secure a loan of money on the lot on which he then and afterwards lived when the bill in this case was filed, executed a deed of the said lot to P., prepared by the latter, and which the latter recorded on February 12th, 1910. H., not having secured any money from P., supposing the negotiations with him at an end, on the 3rd of February, 1910, borrowed $400.00, from J. H. which he secured to him by a mortgage on said lot, which mortgage was recorded on the same day. In this mort- ■ gage PI. claimed to be the absolute owner of said lot. A., the bank, never knew of the deed from H. to P. until after it was filed for record. It has sued out execution and levied on said lot as the property of P. On these facts set out in detail in the opinion, Held: On bill filed by H. against A. and P. to cancel the deed to P. and to declare the judgment of A. against P. as not constituting a lien, on the lot in question, that H. was entitled to the relief for which he prayed.</p> <p>2. The lien of a judgment under the statute of Florida is effective only as to the beneficial interest of the judgment debt- or in real estate. But if the record shows a beneficial interest in the judgment debtor and there are no circumstances to rebut such showing, or to put interested parties upon enquiry, when in fact the judgment debtor has no beneficial interest, or only a partial or qualified interest, those who have the beneficial interest not shown of record may be estopped from asserting it against a bona fide judgment creditor or subsequent purchaser of the judgment debtor, when the judgment creditor or purchaser at a judgment sale under the judgment, reasonably may have acquired substantial rights on the faith of, or by reason of the record showing an interest in the judgment debt