USA Foreclosure Wiki

Collier v. Stanbrough (1848)

4 min read

Collier v. Stanbrough (1848)

Citation: 47 U.S. (6 How.) 14 · Court: Supreme Court of the United States, on writ of error to the Supreme Court of Louisiana · Decided: January Term, 1848 · Opinion: Catron, J., for the Court.

Facts

David Stanbrough, curator of the insolvent succession of Jesse Harper, sold succession property in 1841 to Dougal McCall, who gave three promissory notes (totalling about USD 11,433) secured by a mortgage. The Farmers’ Bank of Virginia held a judgment against the curator in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. A writ of fieri facias issued and the U.S. marshal levied on the three notes by notifying the curator that they were seized; the notes never came into the marshal’s physical possession. After an injunction was dissolved, the marshal sold the notes on April 9, 1842 to Lewis A. Collier, for about USD 3,500, by written transfer. It was admitted that the notes “were never appraised, and that the marshal sold them to Collier at a cash sale on the first biddings.” Collier sued in the Ninth District Court of Louisiana to enforce the notes and annul a competing endorsement to Josiah Stanbrough. The state courts dismissed his petition and the Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed, on the ground that a federal-court creditor could not execute against property of a succession administered as insolvent in the Probate Court.

Holding

Affirmed, on a different ground. Under Louisiana law debts due to a judgment debtor may be seized and sold on execution “like other movable property,” but they must first be appraised, and if two thirds of the appraised value is not bid on the cash offering the officer must not adjudicate but re-advertise. Because “no appraisement was had, and the debt on the first bidding was struck off to Collier, for less than one third of the amount called for by the three notes and the mortgage to secure them,” “the sale was void.”

Reasoning

  • The Louisiana appraisement-and-two-thirds procedure had been adopted by rule of the U.S. Circuit Court in Louisiana and so bound the marshal.
  • Whether movables enjoyed the appraisement rule was settled by the Supreme Court of Louisiana in Phelps v. Rightor, 9 Rob. (La.) 541 (1845): movable property “could not be legally sold by a sheriff in virtue of an execution, without having been first appraised at its cash value,” with a first cash bid of at least two thirds of that value; without the appraisement and bid “the adjudication of a cash sale on the first offer to sell was void, for want of power in the officer.”
  • By analogy to Gantly v. Ewing, 3 How. 707, the defect went to the officer’s power to sell, so it “was immaterial whether the purchaser had or had not knowledge of the fact.”
  • The Court expressly declined to decide the state court’s federal-state conflict ground (execution against an insolvent succession), leaving it open.

Practical impact

  • Buyers at sheriff’s or marshal’s sales of movables in Louisiana: when appraisal is required (today La. C.C.P. art. 2332, with art. 2336’s two-thirds floor at the first offering), a first- offering adjudication without it is exposed to annulment as a sale made without power — not merely an “informality” — and the buyer’s good faith does not cure it. Current law narrows the exposure: Chapter 9 collateral, and property whose security instrument waived appraisal where the judgment is limited to the collateral, need not be appraised (arts. 2332, 2723). Whether La. R.S. 9:5622’s two-year prescription for “informalities” reaches a missing appraisal was not addressed by the Court.
  • Debtors and junior creditors: a cash sale at the first offering far below value, without appraisal, is a ground to attack the sale and the buyer’s title.

Good-law status

Not known to be overruled; a citator search for later treatment was not run (CourtListener was rate-limited on 2026-10-17). The underlying Louisiana rule has been codified and modified since 1848 (C.C.P. arts. 2332, 2336, 2723, 2724); read the case for its principle — no power to adjudicate without the statutory prerequisites — rather than for the 1840s procedure (credit sale at the second offering) it describes.

Applies in →

louisiana · See also personal-property-execution-sales-by-state, court-ordered-administrative-and-creditor-sales.

Sources

Disclaimer. This page is legal information, not legal advice. It summarizes a court decision that may have been limited or distinguished by later authority. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Read the full opinion and consult a licensed attorney before acting.

Graph View