Opinion
March 24, 1937.
April 19, 1937.
Executions — Sheriff's sale — Setting aside — Gross inadequacy of price — Procedure — Necessity for prompt action — Discretion of lower court — Review on appeal.
1. Where the purchase price of real estate at sheriff's sale is grossly inadequate, the sale may be set aside upon petition or motion. [166-7]
2. An application to set aside a sheriff's sale should be made promptly before intervening rights are prejudiced. [166]
3. An order granting relief will not be disturbed on appeal unless it clearly appears that the court below abused its discretion. [166-7]
4. An order setting aside a sheriff's sale was on appeal held not to be an abuse of discretion, where it appeared that the real value of the property sold was in excess of $3,000, and that the amount realized at the sale, less than $1,000, covered merely taxes and costs. [166-7]
Before KEPHART, C. J., SCHAFFER, MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN and BARNES, JJ.
Appeal, No. 145, March T., 1936, from decree of C. P. Allegheny Co., Oct. T., 1935, No. 637, in case of Maggie Hettler et al. v. Samuel E. Shephard. Decree affirmed.
Motion to set aside a sheriff's sale of real estate and exceptions to confirmation of the sale.
The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.
Order entered sustaining exceptions and directing that sale be set aside, upon condition. Before PATTERSON, SMITH and RICHARDSON, JJ., opinion by RICHARDSON, J. Plaintiffs appealed.
Error assigned was order setting aside sale.
Edward J. McGinness, with him G. Roy Keitzer, for appellants.
Herbert R. Hahn and R. A. Hitchens, Jr., for appellee, were not heard.
Argued March 24, 1937.
This is an appeal from an order setting aside a sheriff's sale for inadequacy of the price at which the property was purchased.
A petition or motion to set aside a sheriff's sale is the proper procedure when the purchase price is grossly inadequate, and an order granting relief will not be disturbed unless it clearly appears that the court below abused its discretion: Kline v. Kline, 324 Pa. 145; Lefever v. Kline, 294 Pa. 22. We held in Delaware County Nat'l Bank v. Miller, 303 Pa. 1, where an order setting aside a sheriff's sale was challenged that ". . . the ultimate test always is, whether or not the action of the court on setting aside the sale was a gross abuse of discretion, . . . and he would be a strange student of the law who could conclude that a chancellor grossly abused his discretion by refusing to do that which would have shocked his conscience." An application to set aside a sheriff's sale should be made promptly before intervening rights are prejudiced.
While the property sold was assessed for $3,080, the real value was above this figure and the amount realized at the sale, $989.76, covered merely taxes and costs. The court below found that such price was inadequate. The great disproportion between the price realized at the sale and the real value of the property effectively negatives the contention that the lower court abused its discretion. Such gross inadequacy of price offered sufficient basis for the action of the court below.
Decree affirmed at appellants' cost.