Miller v. Pence

Citations

• 115 Ill. 576
• 4 N.E. 496

Syllabus

<p>1. Judgment—whether void for want of jurisdiction—and who may question its validity. A. purchased land at a sale under execution against M., and received a sheriff’s deed, when he filed a bill against B., a purchaser of the same land under another judgment and execution against M., to have the latter sale set aside as a cloud on his title, and obtained a decree to that effect. After this, M. procured a reversal of the first named judgment, claiming that A., as an attorney in the case, bought with notice of the error in the record. A. then procured an assignment of B.’s certificate of purchase, and took a deed thereon to himself, and B., by an arrangement with A., sued out a writ of error from the Appellate Court, and assigned errors, which A. confessed, and the decree setting aside B.’s purchase was reversed and A.’s bill dismissed: Held, that A. acquired the title of M. by the sheriff’s deed on B.’s certificate of purchase, and that he could not question the validity of the judgment of reversal.</p> <p>2. The judgment of the Appellate Court reversing a decree setting aside a sheriff’s sale as a cloud on title, is not void for want of jurisdiction of the writ of error, as all bills to remove clouds from title do not involve a freehold. When there is jurisdiction of the persons of the proper parties, there is at least jurisdiction to adjudge whether the particular case involves a freehold, and so whether the court has jurisdiction of the subject matter; and a mistake in respect to the jurisdiction of the court is but error, and the judgment of the court is not void.</p>