Opinion ID: 1112737
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The liability of James and Cheryl Owen under the covenants of title contained in their statutory warranty deed.

Text: The deed executed by James and Cheryl Owen contained no express covenants of title, but it did use the words, grant, bargain, sell and convey. In all conveyances of estates in fee where the words grant, bargain, and sell appear, the deed is construed by statute as containing the following covenants of title: a covenant of seizin; a covenant against encumbrances; and a covenant of quiet enjoyment. Code 1975, § 35-4-271. Appellant asserts that James and Cheryl Owen are liable for a breach of the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment contained in the statutory warranty deed, and that such a covenant runs with the land so as to benefit a remote grantee or assign. Unlike the express covenants of title found in a general warranty deed, however, the implied covenants of title contained in a statutory warranty deed are more limited in effect. In the early case of Heflin v. Phillips, 96 Ala. 561, 11 So. 729 (1892), the Court noted: In construing this statute [predecessor of § 35-4-271] this Court declared that the words `grant, bargain, sell' do not import an absolute general covenant of seizin against incumbrances and for quiet enjoyment, but that they amount to a covenant only against acts done or suffered by the grantor and his heirs. 96 Ala. at 562, 11 So. 730. (Emphasis added.) See also Griffin v. Reynolds, 17 Ala. 198 (1850). More than twenty years after Heflin, the Court remarked: All authorities hold that the covenants implied by statute are limited to the acts of the grantor and those claiming under him, and do not extend to defects of title anterior to the conveyance to him. Mackintosh v. Stewart, 181 Ala. 328, 333, 61 So. 956, 958 (1913). In Mackintosh, the immediate grantee (Stewart), prevailed in enforcing the implied warranty of seizin contained in a statutory warranty deed against the grantor (Mackintosh). The grantor had allowed part of the subject property to be adversely possessed during his period of ownership. Although the grantee succeeded in showing that adverse possession took place at least partially during the period in which the grantor held title to the property, the Court suggested the outcome of the case could have been different had the grantor pleaded and proved that adverse possession had ripened into title prior to the grantor's laying claim to the subject property. 181 Ala. at 337, 61 So. at 959. This result would have ensued in that instance, because the defect in the title would have been anterior to the conveyance to Mackintosh by his grantor. Although Mackintosh would have been without good title to convey to Stewart, Mackintosh would not have been liable to Stewart under the statutory warranty deed's inplied covenants of title because Mackintosh would not have suffered or caused any of the title problems. James and Cheryl Owen conveyed their complete, albeit non-existent interest, in the subject property to Dennis Carlisle by statutory warranty deed. By so doing, they merely warranted that they had not conveyed title to anyone else; that they had not allowed the property to become encumbered while they held purported title; and that they had not caused or suffered anyone to do anything that would interfere with the property's quiet enjoyment by the grantee, the grantee's heirs or assigns. Because the record indicates that James and Cheryl did nothing to affect the purported title they conveyed, they did not breach any of the covenants of title contained in the statutory warranty deed delivered to Dennis Carlisle and are therefore not liable to the appellant, as subrogee of GECC.