Overstreet v. Manning

Citations

• 67 Tex. 657
• 4 S.W. 248
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 942

Syllabus

<p>1. Bona Fide Purchaser.—One who purchases at a voluntary sale from his debtor, and pays no money, but credits the amount of the consideration on a pre existing debt, is not a bona fide purchaser for value—following former adjudications.</p> <p>2. Same.—The reason of this rule is, that the purchaser advances nothing on the faith of his purchase, and loses nothing if the apparent title of his vendor should prove worthless. Hence, an agreement to discharge a debt to a third party for which the purchaser is already liable as guarantor, or to assume the payment of a debt to a third party without the knowledge or assent of such third party, or to pay off a mortgage already existing on other property of the purchaser which he would be compelled to pay off to protect his title, is within the reason of the rule.</p> <p>3. Cases Reviewed.—Brothers v. Mundell, 60 Texas, 240, and Grace v, Wade, 45 Texas, 527, reviewed.</p> <p>4. Chattel Mortgages.—By the word creditors, as used in the Act of February 5, 1840, which protected creditors and purchasers without notice against prior unrecorded conveyances and mortgages of property, was meant creditors who had acquired some character of lien on the property. Such is still the law. Whilst the statute as to chattel mortgages differs from the Act of 1840, in that it avoids these instruments as against creditors, whether with or without notice, it makes no change as to the character of the debt to be thus protected.</p> <p>6. Statutes Construed.—The language of the Act of February 5, 1840, and the Act regarding chattel mortgages being the same, and the latter act having been passed since the decision in Grace v. Wade, relating to the same subject matter, the word creditors as it occurs in the latter act must be regarded as having the same meaning that was applied to it in construing the former act.</p> <p>6. Chattel Mortgage Act.—One who has not acquired a lien by process of law, on chattels claimed under a prior unrecorded mortgage,