Opinion ID: 1821473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: right of guardian to sell real estate at a private sale

Text: On original deliverance, a majority of the Court was of the opinion that an equity court was without authority to authorize the private sale of an insane person's property. In reaching that conclusion, the majority opined: The requisites of a valid sale of a ward's realty were clearly set forth in Wilson v. McKleroy, 206 Ala. 342, 89 So. 584 (1921), wherein the Court held: `The legal title to land of a minor is not in his guardian, but in the ward. It cannot be sold by the guardian except by an order of a court. The court is the vendor. No title passes from the minor until the sale is confirmed by the court. The duty of the court is to secure the best price, full value of the property, for the interested party or parties. Montgomery v. Perryman, 147 Ala. 207, 41 So. 838, 119 Am.St.Rep. 61; Roy v. Roy, 159 Ala. 555, 48 So. 793. `The guardian of a minor has no right to sell privately her ward's real estate.... `When a necessity exists to sell the real estate of a ward for maintenance, division, to pay debts or reinvestment, the order may be obtained from a court of competent jurisdiction, there must be a public sale, the sale reported to the court, the report confirmed, the purchase money paid, and deed directed to be made by the court to the purchaser. In this way a valid title to real estate of a ward may pass to the purchaser. Sections 4411, 4409, 4426, Code 1907; Am. & Eng.Enc. of Law, vol. 15, p. 57; Le Roy v. Jacobosky, 136 N.C. 443, 48 S.E. 796, 67 L.R.A. 977.' (Emphasis added.) Appellees (cross appellants) contend that the Circuit Court of Jackson County, sitting in equity, had jurisdiction to approve a private or a public sale of the wards' land. They cite Montgomery v. Montgomery, 236 Ala. 33, 180 So. 709 (1938), as authority for this principle. In Montgomery, this Court held, irrespective of statutory law, `the chancery court possesses the power to authorize the guardian of a non compos mentis to sell or mortgage the real and personal property of the ward, whenever it becomes necessary to pay the debts of the estate, or to provide necessary maintenance and support for the non compos mentis, and of his family.' The Montgomery case does not address whether the power to sell includes the power to sell at a private sale. We recognize that in Montgomery, the equity court had authorized a private conveyance. If Montgomery advances the proposition that equity has jurisdiction to order a private sale of a lunatic's estate, it is inconsistent with the statement in Wilson v. McKleroy , that `there must be a public sale.' Wilson's requirement of `a public sale' is consistent with § 26-4-144, and its predecessors, which required such sales to be at `public outcry.' The Court further opined that [i]n view of the fact that the legislature has set up a statutory scheme whereby a sale of an insane person's estate can be effected, a court of equity is without inherent power to deal with the estate in a manner inconsistent with the statutory scheme. This is what we understand Roy [Roy v. Roy, 159 Ala. 555, 48 So. 793 (1909)] holds, and we think the holding in Roy is consistent with equity jurisprudence, because equity `... jurisdiction over the person and property of lunatics and idiots, and all others who may be adjudicated non compos mentis, was derived by delegation from the crown; it was a portion of the king's executive power as parens patriae, and did not belong to the court of chancery by virtue of its inherent and general judicial functions. This branch of the regal authority was delegated to the chancellor as the personal representative of the crown, by means of an official instrument called the Sign Manual, signed by the king's own signature, and sealed with his own privy seal, and was exercised by the chancellor alone, and not by the court of chancery.' Pomeroy's Equity Jurisprudence, Vol. 4, 5th ed. § 1311, p. 883 (1941). On rehearing, we have been favored with additional briefs by the parties and several briefs by amici curiae. The thrust of the briefs which urge rehearing on this particular issue are to the effect that the statement in Wilson v. McKleroy , which the majority used in the original opinion, is not the law. Typical of the arguments is one made in an amicus curiae brief, which reads as follows:  Wilson v. McKleroy, supra is in direct conflict with the opening statement in the earlier case of McCreary v. Billing, 176 Ala. 314, 315, 58 So. 311 (1912): `It has long been the settled doctrine in this state that it is within the original jurisdiction of courts of equity to decree the sales of lands of infants, not only for their maintenance and education, or to remove incumbrances, or to satisfy charges resting thereon, but for the investment of the proceeds of sale for the general interest and advantage of the infant. Ex parte Jewett, 16 Ala. 409; Rivers v. Durr, 46 Ala. 418; Goodman v. Winter, 64 Ala. 410, 38 Am.Rep. 13; Thorington v. Thorington, 82 Ala. 489, 1 South. 716.' [Emphasis provided in brief.]