NATHAN C. BRYAN AND ANNIE B. BRYAN, HIS WIFE, APPELLANTS,
v.
LESLIE R. MORE AND OLIVE M. BRYAN, AS WIDOW OF EUGENE C. BRYAN, DECEASED, AND AS EXECUTRIX OF THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE SAID EUGENE C. BRYAN, DECEASED, APPELLEES

Fla. | 1931-04-01
Whitfield, P. J., and Terrell, J., concur., Buford, CM., and Brown and Ellis, J.J., concur in the opinion and judgment.
101 Fla. 31 Florida Supreme Court (1931) Caution
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court reversed a foreclosure decree on a vendor's lien, holding that the vendor implicitly waived his lien rights by accepting personal notes from the purchaser and consenting to a deed to a third-party corporation rather than the original purchaser, thereby enabling the third party to mortgage the property.


Holding

The vendor's alleged lien was waived as to the rights of the subsequent purchasers (the appellants). The vendor's conduct in taking personal notes instead of securing a formal lien and in deeding to a third party with acquiescence demonstrated an intention not to rely solely on an implied vendor's lien, constituting a waiver of such lien.


Key Quotes

“The equitable lien for the purchase money which the law implies in the absence of an express lien or other remedy is for the benefit of the grantor of land, and it may be waived. Such waiver may be expressly made, or it may be inferred from facts and circumstances.”

Establishes the foundational principle that vendor's liens can be waived by express agreement or inference from conduct.

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Facts & Procedural History

Eugene C. Bryan purchased property from Leslie R. More without a formal security agreement, giving promissory notes totaling $3,800 as evidence of the…

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Opinion of the Court
Davis, J.

*32Davis, J.

Appellees, as complainants in the Court below, obtained a decree of foreclosure of a vendor’s lien against the appellants who took title to the property involved from Ridge Properties, Inc., to which title was conveyed at the direction of the original purchaser, Eugene C. Bryan, who was deceased when the bill was filed.

It is shown that when the transaction between Eugene 0. Bryan and the vendor, Leslie R. More, took place, no security was taken for the unpaid portion of the purchase price, but that the purchaser, Eugene 0. Bryan, gave the complainant as evidence of such purchase price, promissory notes aggregating $3800.00, and that at the purchaser’s direction the vendor made a deed to the property direct to Ridge Properties, Inc., which is alleged to have been a corporation largely controlled and directed by the purchaser.

The appellants here, Nathan C. Bryan and Annie B. Bryan, claim that they purchased the property concerning which the vendor’s lien is claimed, from Ridge Properties, Inc., and that they paid a valuable consideration therefor without notice of any claim on the part of the vendor of a right to a lien against the property for the unpaid purchase money and without notice of any fact which would have given the complainant such lien against the land conveyed to them for a valuable consideration.

The contention also is made that it was shown to have been the intention of the complainant in taking the personal notes of Eugene C. Bryan for the purchase money, and deeding the property to a third person, in order to enable such third person to make a mortgage on the property for the purpose of erecting a building on it, to waive his vendor’s lien, if any he had, against the property in the hands of his grantee, which was not the purchaser, but *33which took the title pursuant to purchaser’s direction with the vendor’s acquiescence.

In McKinnon v. Johnson, 45 So. 451, 54 Fla. 538, it was held:

“The equitable lien for the purchase money which ■the law implies in the absence of an express lien or other remedy is for the benefit of the grantor of land, and it may be waived. Such waiver may be expressly made, or it may be inferred from facts and circumstances. Any conduct on the part of the grantor tending to show that he does not rely solely upon the legal implication in his favor may operate as a waiver of the grantor’s lien.”

It appears to us that the case we have here is governed by the foregoing rule, and that under the facts shown oE record, it must be held that complainant’s alleged vendor’s lien was waived in so far as the rights of the appellants are concerned and that the court below committed error in entering a decree to the contrary.

The decree is therefore reversed for the entry of an appropriate decree in accordance with this opinion.

Decree reversed.

Whitfield, P. J., and Terrell, J., concur.

Buford, CM., and Brown and Ellis, J.J., concur in the opinion and judgment.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Lafferty v. Dorothea M. Detwiler, 155 Fla. 95 (Fla. 1944)
    …t referred to in the answer or counter-claim. Nor have we overlooked McCaskill v. Dekle, 88 Fla. 285, 102 So. 252, cited by appellants; nor Morgan v. Easton, 59 Fla. 562, 52 So. 305; McKinnon v. Johnson, 54 Fla. 538, 45 So. 451, and Bryan v. Moore, 101 Fla. 31, 133 So. 338, but we do not consider these cases determinative of this case. Undoubtedly the general rule is that when a vendor puts it out of his power to convey the title, or. waives his lien, he canhot enforce it. This brings us to appellants’ s…
  • Lewis v. Cole, 108 Fla. 585 (Fla. 1933)
    …en nor taken security for the purchase price other than the grantee’s personal obligation where the rights of others are not injured and it is equitable to sustain the lien. Patton v. Meddick, 122 So. 710, 97 Fla. 1073; Bryan v. Moore, 133 So. 338, 101 Fla. 31; Bowen v. Grace, 64 Fla. 28, 59 So. 563; Shaylor v. Cloud, 63 Fla. 608, 57 So. [*588] 666; Rewis v. Williamson, 51 Fla. 529, 41 So. 449; Johnson v. McKinnon, 45 Fla. 388, 34 So. 272. It is next contended that because the appellee assigned the note…

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