Dresser v. Kronberg (1911)

Decision: November 20, 1911; Cornish, J.; exceptions overruled. Full opinion, reporter pp. 423–428, read in the Legislature’s official Maine Reports scan.

Facts and holding

A sheriff sold two horses as the judgment debtor’s property for USD 58. Their actual owner recovered them through replevin. The good-faith purchaser then recovered the price from the judgment creditor in an action for money had and received.

The execution authorized sale of the debtor’s, not a stranger’s, property; the attempted sale conveyed no title. Caveat emptor supplied no warranty, but did not let the creditor retain the price after complete failure of consideration. Refunding the price restored the parties’ positions; the creditor could obtain renewed execution rather than keep payment generated by another person’s property. The Court distinguished complete failure from ordinary partial encumbrance or quality defects. Full opinion.

Later treatment and limits

Martel v. Bearce, 311 A.2d 540, 546–548 (Me. 1973), expressly explained and applied Dresser’s chattel holding when extending restitution to complete failure of title in a real-estate execution sale. Its footnote 8 reserved partial-encumbrance and qualitative-defect cases. Full later opinion.

Neither decision establishes that every timing or notice irregularity invalidates a completed chattel sale. Nor does good faith alone clear a lender’s security interest. Current 11 §9-1315 supplies the collateral-continuation baseline, subject to its actual exceptions; 14 §4758 separately addresses fraudulent sale/return. No exhaustive adverse-treatment certification is made.

Applies in

maine · personal-property-execution-sales-by-state

Disclaimer. Legal information, not legal advice. Read the complete decisions and current law before acting.