Case Name: Vanbibber vs. Sawyers
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1849-09
Citations: 10 Hum. 81
Docket Number: 
Parties: Vanbibber vs. Sawyers.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tennessee Reports
Volume: 29
Pages: 81–82

Head Matter:
Vanbibber vs. Sawyers.
Where property is sold on a credit by decree of chancery, the purchaser becomes a party to the suit, and the court may enforce the payment of the purchase money. This jurisdiction continues till there has been a final disposition of the original cause.
A scire facias was issued from the chancery court at Tazewell, on the 8th day of June, 1848. It averred that there was a suit depending in said court, at the December term, 1841, Hamilton and wife complainants, and the administrator of Goin, deceased, and others defendants; that at said term it was decreed that the slaves of said Goin, should be sold on a credit of twelve months, by the clerk of said court, that at the June term, 1842, the clerk reported that he had sold the said slaves, and that Thomas W. Sawyers had purchased one of them, for the sum of four hundred dollars, for which a note was executed, that the report was confirmed, the title to said slave vested in Sawyers, and after certain payments, the note had been handed over to the guardian of the heirs of Goin, (Vanbibber) who were entitled to the same on the settlement of the estate, and that the guardian presented the note to the court, and moved that scire facias issue, to notify said Sawyers to appear and show cause why decree should not be entered against him, &e. &c.
To this, there was a demurrer, and the chancellor (Williams) did not allow the same, but on hearing, gave a decree against the defendant. He appealed.
Rodgers, for Vanbibber.
T. A. R. Nelson, for Sawyers.

Opinion:
McKinney, J.
delivered the opinion of the court.
It is well settled that a purchaser at a sale made by a master, under the decretal order of a court of chancery, thereby makes himself a party to the proceedings in the cause, for some purposes, though not a party originally; and subjects himself to the summary power of the court, in the exercise of its inherent jurisdiction, to enforce and give effect to its own orders and decrees, to compelí him to complete his purchase, by paying the purchase money.
This jurisdiction will be exercised, in all proper cases, so long as the control of the court over the cause and the parties continues, as was done in the case of Deaderick et als. vs. Smith et als., 6 Hump. 138. But the case under consideration is wholly different from that case. Here, the sale had been confirmed by the court, the title to the slave, purchased by Sawyers, had been vested in him by decree of the court; the note in question, upon a final adjustment of the matters in the cause, had been delivered to Vanbibber, as guardian, by the clerk and master; and a final disposition made of the cause; and all this more than two years before the institution of this proceeding. Nothing further remained to be done in the cause. The court had divested itself of all control over the cause and parties; and had no jurisdiction therefore to entertain the motion made in this cause. The decree of the chancellor will be reversed, and the motion dismissed.