McGeary v. Jenkins

Citations

• 187 Pa. 440
• 41 A. 315
• 1898 Pa. LEXIS 825

Syllabus

<p>Sheriff's sale — Fraud—Tender—Equity.</p> <p>Where a purchaser at a sheriff’s sale and the execution creditor have been guilty of a fraudulent combination in connection with the sale, a bill in equity may be maintained by the defendants in the execution to compel a reconveyance of the property, without a previous tender to the purchaser of the amount expended by him in the purchase of the property.</p> <p>On a bill in equity to compel the reconveyance of properly sold at a sheriff’s sale under a building association mortgage, it appeared that the plaintiff had owned the property in question, and that the defendant promised to secure a stay of the sale by using certain money which the plaintiff had given him, and other money which he was to advance himself. The building association refused to postpone the sale, and the defendant, without notifying the plaintiff, entered into an agreement with the association by which he was to bid in the property for a sum which would pay the building association, but which was not equal to the value of the property. There was a material disagreement between the plaintiff and the defendant as to the amount due on her debt to the association, as to the amount advanced by defendant, and as to the amount furnished by plaintiff'. Held, (1) that a tender by plaintiff' to defendant of the amount expended by him in the purchase of the property was not a prerequisite of a right to maintain the bill; (2) that plaintiff was entitled to a reconveyance on reimbursing the defendant for his expenditures; (3) that the matters in the bill were not res adjudicata, since the plaintiff was not seeking to invalidate the sale, but merely to obtain a reconveyance of the property sold, on the ascertainment and reimbursement of defendant’s expenditures ; (4) that the court below should not have dismissed the bill, but should have ascertained the amount of defendant’s expenditures and decreed a reconveyance of the property conditioned upon the payment by