Pollard v. Harlow

The plaintiff is a purchaser of the mortgaged premises at a sale, under a judgment entered April 7, 1899, in the case of the Farmers and Merchants' Savings Bank of Oakland against Thomas Conway, Emma Crothers, et al., foreclosing a mortgage of Conway of date March 19, 1896, and is the holder of a certificate of sale of that date in due form. The suit was commenced December 29, 1898. The defendant is the commissioner who made the sale. Emma, or Mrs. Crothers, defendant in the foreclosure suit, is the *Page 391 assignee of a sheriff's certificate of sale, of date December 8, 1898, duly made to one Johanna Conway, purchaser of the same land, at an execution sale under a judgment in her favor against the mortgagor, Conway, of date August 22, 1898, and also defendant in the foreclosure suit; and she is also the holder of a certificate of redemption from the foreclosure sale, issued to her pending the time for redemption, by the defendant Harlow. The plaintiff, after the expiration of the time for redemption, demanded of Harlow a deed, and upon his refusal to comply with the demand, brought this suit for mandamus; and judgment having been entered in plaintiff's favor, the defendant appeals. The sole question involved is as to the validity of the redemption made or attempted by Mrs. Crothers, which it is claimed by the respondent was void, — 1. Because she was not entitled to redeem, either as "redemptioner" or as "successor in interest" of the judgment debtor; and 2. Because, if entitled to redeem in the latter capacity, she did not do so.

With regard to the former point, it may be assumed that Mrs. Crothers was not entitled to redeem as "a creditor having a lien by judgment," on the mortgaged premises, or, in other words, as "redemptioner." (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 701) For, as is forcibly argued by the respondent, her judgment was satisfied by the sale, and the lien ceased to exist. But we have no doubt that she is to be regarded as "successor in interest" of the judgment debtor. For by the provisions of section 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure it is in effect so enacted. For it is there provided that "upon a sale of real property, the purchaser is substituted to and acquires all the right, title, interest, and claim of the judgment debtor thereto," which is to say unequivocally that he becomes the successor in interest of the judgment debtor; nor is the language used susceptible of a different construction. Any other construction of the act would lead to the absurd result that by purchasing at an execution sale the purchaser would lose the right to redeem altogether, for, as we have assumed, his judgment is satisfied and his lien thus extinguished. Accordingly it has been said by this court, referring to a similar case: "The execution of the deed gave to the purchaser at the sale no new title to the land purchased by *Page 392 him, but was merely evidence that his title had become absolute. Upon the sale, he acquired all the right, title, interest, and claim of the judgment debtors thereto (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 700), subject to be defeated by a redemption within six months, and to the right of the judgment debtors to remain in the possession of the land until the execution of the sheriff's deed; and all that remained in the [judgment debtors] was the right of redemption and to retain possession of the land until the expiration of the time therefor." (Robinson v. Thornton, 102 Cal. 680; Duff v. Randall, 116 Cal. 230.1)