Rankin v. Carpenter (1978)

Citation: 568 S.W.2d 198 · Court: Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Tyler (No. 1135) · Decided: June 22, 1978; rehearing denied July 20, 1978 · Opinion: Moore, J.

Source note (2026-10-18):

• Links on this page to https://static.case.law/sw2d/568/cases/0198-01.json are an (unofficial Caselaw Access Project copy, retrieved before 2026-10-18; host disallows automated access); no official or otherwise permitted full-text copy was located on 2026-10-18.

Source: opinion text from the Caselaw Access Project (Harvard Law School Library) at the source_url, retrieved 2026-10-16.

Facts

A Harris County constable (Precinct 1) levied on a Caterpillar 955K front-end loader under a writ of execution and hired David Cahoon to haul it to his lot and hold it until the sale. The constable’s office sent the notice of sale to Cahoon so that he could post it at the place of sale; Cahoon put it in his desk drawer. At the February 24, 1976 sale Cahoon was the only bidder and paid USD 500. The trial court found the machine was worth USD 15,000 at levy, that notice was never properly posted at the place of sale, set the sale aside, ordered a resale and awarded Cahoon USD 631.77 out of the resale proceeds.

Holding

Affirmed. “An execution sale will be set aside upon proof that it was made for a grossly inadequate price and was accompanied by irregularities which tended to contribute to the inadequacy of price.” Failure to post the TRCP 650 notice at the place of sale, combined with the storing bidder’s special knowledge and participation, was such an irregularity, and USD 500 was a grossly inadequate price.

Reasoning

• TRCP 650 requires ten days’ posting “at the courthouse door of any county and at the place where the sale is to be made”; conflicting evidence on whether a notice was ever visibly posted supported the trial court’s finding that it was not.
• Where a sale is set aside for gross inadequacy coupled with irregularities, the debtor need not tender the judgment amount first.
• An equitable suit to set aside an execution sale “must be brought in the court out of which the writ issued”; once filed there, it may be transferred among Harris County district courts.
• The irregularities are presumed, in support of the judgment, to have contributed to the low price.

Practical impact

For a buyer at a Texas personal-property execution sale, a very low price is not by itself fatal, but a low price plus any defect in the posting or conduct of the sale exposes the purchase to being unwound, with only restitution of the price (and proven, properly pleaded expenses) returned. A bidder connected to the custody of the property is the most exposed. For an owner/debtor, the case supplies the standard and the forum for challenging a sale of seized equipment or vehicles.

Good-law status

The full opinion was independently retrieved again at the original source_url on 2026-10-17. The current official TRCP compilation contains the same Rule 650 posting requirement, but Rule 679b now adds individual-debtor exemption notice and sale suspension. This checks the cited holding and that rule comparison; the opinion does not state the set-aside limitation period. Later judicial treatment and complete currentness remain needs_verification; reading an original opinion is not a citator check.

Applies in →

texas