Court Opinion

ID: 9865540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 18:53:01.047488+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:15.001810
License: Public Domain

On Motion For Rehearing
Counsel for the defendants in error, in their motion for a rehearing, complain of the ruling made in the first division of the opinion. Counsel contend that damages are not recoverable from an administrator who has fraudulently conspired with others to sell and buy land belonging to an estate; and that the only remedy available to the aggrieved heirs is an action for the recovery of the land. Although citing no authority holding to the contrary of the ruling made in division one of the opinion, counsel in their motion for rehearing state: “Since receiving a copy of the opinion in this case, we have spent several days in examining *139the statute law of this State, the various digests of the decisions of this State, Corpus Juris, Corpus Juris Secundum, Ruling Case Law, American Jurisprudence, American Law Reports, and other digests in our library, and such examination has been in vain in our efforts to find a single authority, whether it be statute, decision, textbook or what have you, that would sustain the ruling of this court in the first headnote of the opinion, as applied to actions for land. We have, therefore, come to the final conclusion that we may say, without fear of successful authoritative contradiction, that there is no authority that can be cited to sustain the first division of this opinion as applied to the facts of this case.”
We might cite considerable authority for the ruling made by this court. Suffice it to say, however, if counsel for the defendants in error will reread the authorities referred to in their motion for rehearing, they will find the law succinctly stated in 34 C. J. S. 637, § 665, where it is said: “An executor or administrator who directly or indirectly purchases the property at a sale under order of the court may be held liable for damages resulting therefrom. The representative may be charged with the full value of the land at the time of the sale, or perhaps at the time of the suit, unless the heirs or devisees recover the land itself, as they are entitled to do in case they elect to have the sale set aside, see supra § 599. If he has resold he is chargeable with all the profits realized on the resale.” For a similar statement of the law,, with citation of many cases, including several Georgia cases, see 24 C. J., 709, § 1740. See generally Bell v. Bell, 20 Ga. 250; McWilliams v. Lehman, 143 Ga. 139 (84 S. E. 557).

Motion denied.

All the Justices concur, except Bell, J., absent on account of illness.