Court Opinion

ID: 9655122
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:00:42.875263+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:16.190457
License: Public Domain

On Petition to Rehear
This was a general creditors ’ suit by a judgment creditor with a nulla bona return. The insolvent defendant made no defense, and the bill was sustained. The only controversy was over the claim of petitioners (two creditors) to priority in the proceeds of a lot described in the bill.
Petitioners sought to support their claim upon these grounds: (1) that the filing of the bill (Oct. 18, ’57) and of the notice lis pendens (Nov. 1) did not fix a lien on the property of the insolvent for the benefit of his creditors; *431but (2) that the American Oil Company, by levy of its execution (Oct. 29) on the lot, acquired a prior lien; and (3) that petitioners, by redeeming from the Oil Company (Jan. 15, ’58), acquired its priority.
The Chancellor held that the Oil Company’s levy fixed a lien prior to the lien fixed by the filing of the bill and of the notice of lis pendens, but that the latter lien was superior to any right acquired by petitioners as redemp-tioners from the Company; and he, accordingly, denied their claim.
They appealed, and the Court of Appeals likewise denied their claim; and we denied their petition for cer-tiorari, agreeing with the result reached by those courts but putting our action upon a somewhat different ground: that the filing of the bill impounded the property and fixed a lien on it for all the creditors, and, therefore, the Oil Company’s attempted levy was a nullity.
Petitioners have filed an able and earnest petition to rehear our denial of certiorari, urging two propositions in support of their petition.
First: They assert that by our holding that the insolvent debtor’s property was impounded by the filing of the bill and the Oil Company’s attempted levy was a nullity, we “reversed the Chancellor on the determination of an issue from which no appeal was taken by any party” and that this holding is erroneous, “in conflict with [our] Rule 15(2),” and detrimental to petitioners.
As we understand, petitioners contend that since the Chancellor held the Oil Company had perfected a prior lien, and since there was no appeal by any party from that particular holding, it became final and was binding *432on the appellate courts, and they could consider only the question whether this prior lien passed to petitioners as redemptioners.
This argument overlooks the effect of petitioners’ appeal from the Chancellor’s decree. It is not correct to say we reversed his determination on an issue not appealed from. The “issue” determined by him was their claim, which he denied; and their appeal brought up this issue, their claim and the grounds on which they sought to support it.
We sustained the Chancellor’s denial of the claim, though upon a different ground. Where the court below rules correctly, but upon an erroneous reason, the appellate court will sustain the ruling, upon what it conceives to be the correct theory. Sheafer v. Mitchell, 109 Tenn. 181, 193, 194, 71 S.W. 86; Still v. Pennsylvania Threshermen & F. Mut. Cas. Ins. Co., 195 Tenn. 323, 326-327, 259 S.W.2d 538; Nashville, C & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Jackson, 187 Tenn. 202, 207, 213 S.W.2d 116; Denny v. Wilson County, 198 Tenn. 677, 686, 281 S.W.2d 671.
Second: Petitioners’ second proposition is this: “The filing of the general creditor’s bill by complainant did not create a lien lis pendens from the date of the filing.” This is only a re-argument of the same question already fully considered and determined in our former opinion, and is, therefore, not appropriate for a petition to rehear. Rule 32; City of Paris v. Paris-Henry Co. Pub. Utility Dist., 207 Tenn. 388, 340 S.W.2d 885, 890.
Petitioners, however, undertake to support it by a matter not raised until now. They say the Chancery Court had no equity jurisdiction of this case; that the bill sought to reach only property leviable at law, and, there*433fore, was not within the inherent jurisdiction of equity or its jurisdiction as extended by our statutes.
The property of the defendant sought to he reached by the bill was his “interest in a business” and this lot. While the bill stated he had title to the lot, this must be taken with the further averment that he was insolvent and complainant’s executions had been returned nulla bona, “no assets to be found.”
These averments were sufficient to make a case within the equity jurisdiction, and were so treated by all the parties below. In such circumstances the court’s jurisdiction must be sustained. Turley v. Taylor, 71 Tenn. 171, 173; Scott Co. Nat. Bank v. Robinson, 143 Tenn. 353, 363, 226 S.W. 218.
Moreover, this was a case within the statutory rule of lis pendens (secs. 26-604, 20-301) and a lien was created on the property “on the filing of the bill,” so far as concerns the rights of the Oil Company and of petitioners, they not being innocent purchasers or encumbrancers for value.
For these reasons, the petition to rehear is denied at the cost of petitioners.