Peirce v. Graham

Citations

• 85 Va. 227
• 7 S.E. 189
• 1888 Va. LEXIS 32

Syllabus

<p>1. Personal ■ Representatives&emdash;Decedent's real estate&emdash;Judicial sales&emdash; Jurisdiction.&emdash;Executor, who is given no power as to the realty under the will, is not authorized by the statute (Code 1887, \\ 2665) to maintain a suit against the heirs to sell the realty to pay debts, nor, as next friend to the infant heirs, uniting the widow, to compel the creditors to have the realty sold to pay debts.</p> <p>2. Idem&emdash;Dejective jurisdiction&emdash;Decree&emdash;Billoj review.&emdash;Where the court had jurisdiction over the parties and subject-matter, its decree, though erroneous, is binding until reversed, though it had no jurisdiction to entertain such suit. Hence, a bill of review lies to vacate the decree.</p> <p>3. Idem&emdash;Dower&emdash;Sale&emdash;Consent through threats.&emdash;Where widow was induced to consent to sale of dower by menace of erection, by purchasers of her children’s land, of a furnace near her residence, has cause to have the sale set aside, the sale of her children’s land having been cancelled.</p> <p>4. Idem.&emdash;Where a decree ordered public sale, but it was made privately; ordered as much land sold as would pay $8,000 of debts, but $35,000 worth was sold; and where the executor, who brought the suit and by his own counsel managed it all the way through, was in fact the purchaser, though but the nominal bidder:</p> <p>Held :</p> <p>The purchaser can have no protection in the purchase.</p>