Weeden & Dent v. Brown, et als.

Weeden & Dent v. Brown, et als. Appeal from Barbour Chancery Court. Heard before the Hon. G. L. Comer/Special Chancellor. P. B. McKenzie and S. H. Dent, Jr., for appellants. A. A. Evans, for appellees. The bill in this case was filed by the appellants as transferees, to enforce a vendor’s lien on certain lands described in the bill. The appellee, Nancy A. Brown, purchased lands from one M. B. Hill, on December 28, 1888, and agreed to pay therefor 16 bales of lint cotton weighing five hundred pounds each, in four annual and equal payments, beginning October 1st, 1889. The contract for such payment was in writing and duly transferred to the complainants. All the payments, save the 4 bales due October 1st, 1892, were made. After the purchase of the lands, said Nancy A. Brown executed to the Edinburgh-Land Mortgage Company, Limited, a mortgage to secure a loan and to the Loan Company of Alabama a mortgage to secure the payment of commissions for obtaining said loan. These mortgages were jointly foreclosed and the defendant, George M. Forman, became the purchaser, with notice, given at the sale, of the existence of said vendor’s lien. There was a decree pro confesso against Brown, and upon the final submission of the cause on the pleadings and proof, the chancellor held that the complainants were not entitled to the relief prayed for, and rendered a decree accordingly. The only inquiry in the case is as to whether or not the corporation had notice of the existence of said vendor’s lien at the time of or before the execution of the mortgages. «• The decree is reversed, and one here rendered granting the complainants the relief prayed for. [MAJORITY — McClellan, C. J.] Opinion by McClellan, C. J.