Court Opinion

ID: 9643056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:17:08.300764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:57.468753
License: Public Domain

SANBORN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting)-
In my judgment, the opinion of this court in this case adopts too restricted a view of the discretion lodged in the District Courts in the conduct of judicial sales. Those courts, in ordering the sale of property, are faced with intensely practical problems, with which they are infinitely better equipped to deal than is this court. While their discretion is not unlimited, it should be broad enough to leave them free from interference'by this court except where a clear abuse of discretion is shown and actual prejudice has resulted. Whether property to be sold under mortgage foreclosure can be more advantageously sold as a unit or in separate parcels is, in my judgment, a question lor the lower courts to determine. In the absence of some showing that there were in existence persons who would have bid for the bridges separately or that there would have been some advantage in selling them separately, I see no justification for holding that there was an abuse of discretion in ordering a sale of the mortgaged property as a unit.
The purpose of the statute which requires the sale of real estate at public auction is to give all persons interested an opportunity to bid, to the end that the property may be sold to the best advantage. The public sale with which we are concerned demonstrated in a practical way that there was, at the time of the sale, only one person who would purchase the mortgaged property at a price as high as $50,-000. Upon application for the confirmation of the sale, the court below was called upon to determine whether the offer made by this bidder should be accepted or rejected. Objections were made on the ground that the bid was inadequate. The court below, after a hearing, was of the opinion that the property should bring more than had been offered. It did not. however, find that the sale was collusive or fraudulent. It confirmed the sale on condition that the purchaser pay double the amount which it had bid. There was no showing that there were others who would or might pay more, and no evidence to justify a conclusion that, if another sale was ordered, other bidders would appear. The increased price was deemed by the court below to be adequate. The conditional confirmation of the sale was not prejudicial to the appellants. It resulted in their securing twice as much as they would have received had the sale been confirmed unconditionally. I think that there was no error committed by the court below in confirming this sale to the highest and only bidder, on condition that it increase the amount of its bid, nor in requiring that the mortgaged property be sold as a unit.
It is my conclusion that the order appealed from should be affirmed.