Case Name: Burgauer, Adm'r. v. Laird
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1870-12
Citations: 26 Ark. 256
Docket Number: 
Parties: Burgauer, Adm’r. v. Laird.
Judges: 
Reporter: Arkansas Reports
Volume: 26
Pages: 256–259

Head Matter:
Burgauer, Adm’r. v. Laird.
Admihstrators — Authority of. — An administrator has no authority to sell the real property of his intestate, except in the manner prescribed by statute.
Purchaser — Not Trespasser. — Although the sale is invalid and void, without an order of court for that purpose, yet the purchaser, having gone into possession by consent of the administrator, he is not a trespasser, or wrongfully in possession, and could not be subject to a suit, unless he refused to surrender upon demand.
Appeal from Montgomery Circuit Court.
JÍ0N. E. J. Searle, Circuit Judge.
Watkins Hose, for appellant.
Realty of intestate cannot be sold save by the intervention and under the authority of some court of competent jurisdiction; and the answer not averring anything of this kind, and merely alleging a parol purchase thereof from the agent of Burgauer, is clearly insufficient, and seems conclusive as to reversal, without further reference to other points.
Garland Nash, for appellee.
The only question arising in this case comes up on complaint, answer thereto and demurrer to the answer, and that question is: Is a purchase of land by parol, when a great portion of the purchase money is paid, and possession given, sufficient to protect the vendee, when, too, he has tendered the residue of the purchase money?
"We think it is. Blakeney v. Ferguson, 8 Ark., 878; %0 lb., 552; if not, the plaintiff should offer to pay back the money. Davis v. Tarwater, 15 Ark., 286, and cases cited.

Opinion:
HáRrisoN, J.
This was a suit, the proceedings in which were under the Code, by Emanuel Burgauer, as administrator of Moses Bur-gauer, deceased, against James J. Laird, for the recovery of a lot, or parcel of ground, in the town of Mt. Ida.
The defense set up in the answer was, that the plaintiff, by a parol agreement, had bargained and sold the lot to the defendant for five hundred dollars, in Montgomery county scrip, which had been paid to him, and he had put the defendant in possession of the premises. The plaintiff demurred to the answer, and assigned specially as causes of demurrer: 1. That it did not show that the lot had been legally sold. 2. That the sale, being by parol, was void by the statute of frauds.
The court overruled the demurrer, and, the plaintiff standing upon it, judgment was rendered against him, and he appealed.
It is clear, beyond all question, that the plaintiff had no authority to sell his intestate's real estate without an order of court for that purpose, and except in the manner prescribed by the statute, but, although the sale to the defendant was invalid and void, having gone into the possession with the consent of the plaintiff, as a purchaser, he was not a trespasser or wrong fully in possession, and could not, therefore, in justice or reason, be subjected to a suit, unless he had refused to surrender it upon a demand or notice to quit. Fears v. Merrill, 9 Ark., 559; Jackson v. Bryant, 1 John., 322; Jackson et al. v. Wheeler, 6 ib., 272; Harley v. McCoy, 7 J. J. Marsh, 317; Right v. Beard, 13 East., 115. The demurrer was, therefore,, correctly overruled.
Judgment affirmed.