Mygatt v. Coe

Mrs. Fisher, had she been evicted and brought her action in the lifetime of Mrs. Coe, could have recovered her damages of this defendant, because he had covenanted directly with her, under his seal, that he would indemnify her for the damages sustained by an eviction. Though Mrs. Coe died before this action was begun, the question of the liability of a surviving joint contractor, Risley v. Brown, 67 N. Y., 160 ; Randall v. Sacked, 77 id., 480, is not raised by the record, and it was conceded on the argument in this court that it does not appear whether the defendant received the whole or any part of the consideration of the deed. Mrs. Coe having no title when she conveyed to Mrs. Fisher, the covenants of seizin and of right to convey were broken by the delivery of her deed and became choses in action, which were not transferred to the subsequent grantees, or, in other words, these covenants did not run with the land. Greenby v. Wilcocks, 2 Johns., 1 ; Abbott v. Allen, 14 id., 248; McCarty v. Leggett, 3 Hill, 134 ; Mott v. Palmer, 1 N. Y., 564 ; Chapman v. Holmes, 5 Hals., 20; 2 Dart’s Vend., 6th ed., 881; Rawle Cov., 5th ed., §§ 69, 202. The plaintiffs must recover, if at all, for a breach of the covenants of warranty and of quiet enjoyment

The important question in this case is, whether covenants of warranty and of quiet enjoyment entered into jointly by the owner of the fee and a stranger to the title run with the land as against the stranger, and are available in favor of a subsequent grantee, who holds no assignment of the cause of action arising from the breach.

Had the plaintiffs been able to allege and prove a deed in which the defendant and his wife had assumed to grant, and had they delivered possession of the premises described, and had convenanted that they were lawfully seized, had good right to convey, and that

There are three manner of privities, viz.: (1.) Privityincaseof estate only; (2.) Privity in respect to contract only. (3) Privity in. respect to estate and contract together. 2 Sugd. Vend., *714;, 4 Cruise’s Dig., *376; Greenleaf’s Ed., 458.

The term privity in estate denotes mutual or successive relationship to the same rights of property. Stacy v. Thrasher, 6 How., U. S., 44-69; Greenl. Ev., §§ 189, 523; Big. Est, 5th ed., 347. ‘‘ There is a certain privity between the grantor and grantee' of the land. It is not the privity arising upon tenure, for there is no fiction of fealty annexed. It is, however, the same sort of privity which enables the grantee of a purchaser to maintain an action upon the covenants of title given to his vendor; and it is, moreover, a privity of the same nature with that which obtains-between the grantor and grantee of terms for life and for years.” Van Rensselaer v. Hays, 19 N. Y., 68 , 91.

There was no mutual relationship between the defendant and Nancy Fisher or her grantees, nor was there any successive relationship between him and Nancy Fisher or her grantees.

It is not necessary that privity of estate, within the meaning of the feudal law, mutuality, should exist between the covenantor and the covenantee, or his successors in interest, to carry a coven* ant of warranty to subsequent grantees. Van Rensselaer v. Read, 26 N. Y., 558 , 574, 575. But unless there is either mutuality' or succession of interest this covenant will not run with the land. In this state privity of estate, within the meaning of the law of tenure, seldom arises except between lessor and the successors of his-

Under the facts found there was no privity of estate, actual or assumed, between the defendant (the covenantor) and Nancy Fisher (the covenantee), only a privity by contract. The defendant having no estate, title or interest in, or possession of the land conveyed, there could be no privity in estate between him and Nancy Fisher, and not having covenanted or represented that he had an estate, he cannot be estopped from showing that he had none. The only privity which existed between the defendant and Nancy Fisher was by contract, which is insufficient to carry the benefit to subsequent owners of the property to which the covenants relate.

In Slater v. Rawson, 6 Met., 439 , the defendant assumed to convey 150 acres of land by a deed containing covenants of seizin and warranty. The plaintiff succeeded to the estate of the defendant’s grantee through several mesne conveyances, but was evicted from twenty-two acres under a title which was paramount to that of the defendant. In an action to recover damages for the breach of the covenants it was held that, -it appearing that the defendant had neither title nor possession, his covenant of warranty did not attach to the land and run with it to subsequent grantees, and that the plaintiff could not recover. Upon the retrial the jury found that the defendant was in, and delivered possession of the land when he conveyed, and it was held, 6 Met., 450 , that seizin was a sufficient estate to attach the covenant to the land and carry it to subsequent grantees, who could sustain an action for its breach. This rule is recognized in other cases. Fowler v. Poling, 2 Barb., 300 ; 6 id., 165; Beddoe’s Fxr. v. Wadsworth, 21 Wend., 120 ; Moore v. Merrill, 17 N. H., 75 .

In Nesbit v. Nesbit, 1 Taylor (N. C.), 82; reconsidered and affirmed, Conf. Rep., 318, one Cranston conveyed land to Mary Montgomery, then under age, who afterwards became the wife of Arthur Newman, the consideration for the conveyance being paid by Hugh Montgomery, the father of Mary. Some years after, Hugh Montgomery, in consideration of sixty pounds, paid to him for the use of his daughter, conveyed the premises to one McConnell, covenanting for quiet enjoyment and for further assurance, to be executed by Mary when she should become of age. McConnell afterwards conveyed one-half of the land to the plaintiff, who being evicted by Mary Newman (formerly Mary Montgomery), sued Montgomery’s executors. A verdict was rendered for the plaintiff; but a motion to arrest the judgment was made, on the ground that the covenants in the deed from Hugh Montgomery to McConnell were covenants in gross, and did not run with the land to McConnell’s grantee. Taylor, J., in speaking for the court, said: “ From the whole of this case, it may be laid down as a rule, without any exception, that a covenant to run with the land and bind the assignee must respect the thing granted or demised, and that the act covenanted to be done .or omitted must concern the lands or estate conveyed. But when it appears upon the face of the declaration that

Webb v. Russell, 3 Term, 393, arose out of the following facts: William Stokes being possessed of a term having some eighty years to run, mortgaged it to Richmond Webb as security for the payment of a debt At this time, by the law of England, the entire legal estate of the mortgaged premises vested in the mortgagee. October 26, 1780, George Russell leased the premises for eleven years from Stokes and Webb, and agreed to pay to Stolces, the owner of the equity of redemption, or to his assigns, the annual rent of two hundred pounds and to keep the premises in repair. In 1781 Sarah Webb, the plaintiff, acquired the estate of the mortgagor and mortgagee and brought an action against Russell for the recovery of rent due and for damages for breaking the covenant to repair. The defendant demurred to the declaration. It was held, Lord Kenyon speaking for the court: “ I cannot conceive how this covenant made with Stokes can be said to run with the. land; for Stokes is stated in the declaration to have no interest whatever in the land, and yet both the implied covenant arising from the yielding and paying, and also the express covenants are entered into with Stokes. It is not sufficient that a covenant is concerning the land, but in order to make it run with the land there must be a privity of estate between the covenanting parties. Bgt here Stokes had no interest in the land of which a court of law could take notice; though he had an equity of redemption, an interest which "a court of equity would take notice

In Keppel v. Bayley, 2 M. & K., 517, many of the previous cases relating to covenants running with the land were analyzed and reviewed by Lord Chancellor Brougham, and among them Webb v. Russell, which was approved, and it was again directly held that a covenant between a covenant or and a covenantee, between whom there was no privity in estate, does not run with the land. Pages 543, 546.

Cole v. Hughes, 54 N. Y., 444 , arose out of the following facts: Voorhies and Dean being adjoining owners, Dean erected a party wall one-half on the land of each, under a contract, which was recorded, by which Voorhies covenanted that whenever he, or his heirs or assigns, used the wall, he or they would pay Dean or his assigns the value of the part so used. Voorhies’ lot passed by mesne conveyances to the defendant Hughes, who built on the lot and used the party wall. Dean assigned the contract to the plaintiff, but conveyed the lot to another. In an action brought by the assignee of the contract it was held: (1.) That the covenant to Dean did not run with his land, and that the right to recover on the covenant belonged to the plaintiff, the assignee of the covenant, and not to the grantee of the lot. (2.) That Voorhies’ covenant to pay for the value of the wall did not run with his lot, and that there being no privity of estate between Voorhies and Dean, only a privity by contract, that the covenant did not run with Voorhies’ lot. The learned judge said in conclusion : “I am of opinion, therefore, that neither the benefits nor the burdens run with the land.” The opinion does not proceed upon the theory that the nature of the covenant was such that it could not run with the land; but on the theory that there being no privity of estate between the covenantor and covenantee, only a privity by contract, that neither the benefits nor burdens of such covenants run with the land to which they relate. Mr. Washburn, in his learned treatise upon the law of real property, says, 2 Wash. R. P., *15 (5th ed.), 296: “ 16. It has also been attempted to maintain the doctrine, that although the burden of a covenant to pay rent may not be imposed upon land in favor of

“But it is believed that the point has never been determined in this way by a full court, though assumed by individual judges, and that, respectable as these opinions in its favor may be, the doctrine contended for is opposed to well settled principles as well as the highest authority. With a few exceptions, the uniform current of authorities, from the time of Webb v. Russell to the present day, requires a privity of estate to give one man a right to sue another upon a covenant where there is no privity of contract between them; and, consequently, that where one who makes a covenant with another in respect to land neither parts with nor receives any .title or interest in the land, at the same time with and as a part of making the covenant, it is, at best, a mere personal one, which neither binds his assignee, nor enures to the benefit of the assignee of the covenantee, so as to enable the latter to maintain an action in his own name for a breach thereof.”

Kent states the rule in this language: “ The distinction between the covenants that are in gross and covenants that run with the land (and which are covenants real, annexed to or connected with the estate, are beneficial to the owner' of it, and to him only) would seem to rest principally on this ground, that, to make a covenant run with the land, there must be a subsisting privity of estate between the covenanting parties.” 4 Kent’s Com., 473.

Lord St. Leonards discusses this question at considerable length, and reaches the conclusion that the covenant of a stranger to a title does not run with the land. 2 Sugd. on Vend., *716, 718, 719, 721 (7th Am. ed.), 168, 170, 171, 173, pp. 25, 26, 33-35, 38. See Platt on Cov., 461; Chitty on Cor. (12th ed., 51); 1 Taylor’s L. & T. (8th ed.), § 261.

In Hurd v. Curtis, 19 Pick., 459 , the owners of four mills, which were supplied with water by the same dam, entered into an indenture by which they covenanted for themselves, their heirs, administrators and assigns, to and with each other, their heirs, administrators and assigns, that they would use wheels of a certain construction and limited power in their respective mills. The plaintiff was a party to the indenture, and owned an undivided half of one of the mills, and subsequently he acquired the other half. Later the defendants purchased of two of the covenantors their mills, and thereafter used wheels of a different construction and of greater power than those specified in the indenture. In an action

Opposed to these authorities are the remarks of the learned American editor of the eighth edition of Smith’s Leading Cases, page 192; Dickinson v. Hoomes' Administrator, 8 Grat., 406. Judge Hare, in his learned note to Spencer's Case, in the edition of Smith’s Leading Cases last referred to, said: “ It appears, therefore, to be an exploded idea that privity of estate or tenure is necessary between the covenanting parties in order that covenants may ru-n with the land.”

Dickinson v. Hoomes' Administrator, 8 Grat, 353, arose out of the following facts: A father devised to every one of his five children a piece of land, subject to the limitation that if any one died without issue, his piece should be divided equally between the survivors or their representatives according to the principles of the law of descents. The five children survived their father, and entered on their several pieces of land. One of them, John, conveyed his land, and the other four children joined in the deed, which contained a covenant of warranty. This land passed by several mesne conveyances to Dickinson, the plaintiff. Richard, one of the children and covenantors, died, in the lifetime of John, leaving several children, and afterwards John died without issue, and thereupon Richard’s children evicted Dickinson, claiming, not by descent from their father,. but under the devise of their grandfather. An action was brought on the covenant of Richard against his representatives; and it was held that when Richard joined in the deed, .“he had, in fact, an interest in the subject; an interest which depended on the double contingency of John’s dying without issue living at his death, and of Richard’s surviving him.” Page 402. In considering the question whether it is necessary that some estate should pass from a

In Lydick v. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, 17 West Va., 427 , the court refers to the conflicting views on the question as to whether the covenant of a stranger runs with the land, and says: “ It is not necessary in this case to determine which of these views is sound. For, in the case before us, the requisite privity of estate exists according to the views of Washburn, who holds such privity to be necessary.” It will be observed that in this case there had been no grant of any kind to the railroad, simply an oral contract for a right of way; which, had it been granted, would have left the reversion in the owner, and would have created a privity of estate according to the strict rule prevailing when land was held by feudal tenure.

The views of Judge Hare and of the court in Dickinson v. Hoomes have been the occasion of some discussion. A writer in the American Law Eegister (N. S.), vol. 2, p. 201, says: “ The following topic must be kept distinct from one shortly to be considered, namely, what amount of estate must pass to support the covenants when the covenantee’s only title is derived from the covenantor. It is conceded that, in order for covenants in general to run with the land,'there must exist a privity of estate between the parties. 3 Wilson, 29 ; 3 T. E., 402 ; 2 East, 380; 17 Wend., 136 . But eminent legal writers have thought this not to be requisite in covenants for title; nor, indeed, in any covenants intended to benefit the estate of the covenantee. Hare’s Note to

“ It may be safely laid down that, if the doctrine that the covenants for title will run with the land, even when entered into by a stranger to the land, has no better foundation than the authority of this case, it cannot be sustained; and it would seem to be the better opinion that, in order for a covenantor’s covenants to run with the land, he must also be a grantor of the land which they affect. No modern case decides that a stranger’s covenants may run with the land; but in a dictum of Moncure, J., in the recent case of Dickinson v. Hoomes, Administrator, 8 Grattan, 406, this doctrine is broadly enunciated. The dictum is based, however, on the Prior’s case, and authors who have followed it. It is there said that a purchaser of land who suspects an infirmity of title, and doubts the responsibility of the vendor, may fortify the title by covenants of the grantor’s friends, or other interested parties, and these covenants will run with the land to future assignees. This notion is possibly correct, and if so, highly important, but is not, we apprehend, in accordance with the common understanding among the members of the legal profession. 7 Jarman’s Bythewood, 572. The introduction of such covenants into conveyances would be a novelty, and probably of doubtful expediency. At least it would not be prudent to rely on such covenants until further adjudications have more fully determined their value.”

In the American Law Eeview, vol. 20, 404, Judge Hare’s.note is discussed, and the writer, in conclusion, says: “But the authority of Pakenham’s case seems to be overthrown by the investigations of Sugden and Washburn, who produce unquestionable proof that the case was not decided by the court as reported by Lord Coke, but that Lord Coke’s report was the expression of a mere dictum by Einchden. This case, then, being authority no longer, the foundation is destroyed of the proposition that even strangers, covenanting to annex a benefit to the land, may be 'held liable in the suit by the assignees of the tenant with whom the covenant was made. The doctrine, therefore, advanced by the learned annotator of Spencer's case, that even strangers may be bound by covenants benefiting the land, is unsound.”

The editor of the 9th American edition of Smith’s Leading Cases, vol. 1, 211, takes a different view of this question from the one taken in the earlier editions. He says: “ It seems that there must be between covenantor and covenantee the relation of grantor and grantee, which is all that there is between the grantee and his

Covenants annexed to estates in privity, or covenants running' with the land, are incidents to the estate. Coke, when at the bar, successfully took the position, Noke v. Awder, Cro. Eliz., 373, that if A. had no estate in land and assumed to convey it with covenants for title to B., who assumed to convey it with like covenants to C., that C. being evicted by a title paramount to A.’s pretended title, could not recover against A. on his covenant, because he having no estate, title or interest in the land, nothing passed to B. to which the covenants could attach as incidents. This doctrine led to the logical conclusion 'that when a grantee lost his land and needed the aid óf his covenants for title, th.at they became worthless. Much that has been written about the liability of strangers to title being liable on their covenants of warranty has been in refutation of the doctrine of the case last cited. It is hardly necessary to say that this doctrine has long been exploded, and it is but remotely, if at all, connected with the question which lies at the root of this case.

The judgment should be reversed and a new trial granted, with costs to abide the event.

The question whether the defendant’s covenant ran with the land, or whether he was capable of making a covenant having that effect, was not specifically raised by any exception taken at the trial, or to any finding or refusal to find of the trial court. The court found that Almira S. Coe and the defendant, her husband, made a deed of the lands described in the complaint, purporting to convey them in fee simple to Raney Fisher, and “that said deed contained covenants of seizin, rightto convey, against incumbrances, quiet enjoyment, further assurances and warranty, which covenants were made by the defendant and Almira S. Coe, jointly.” Ro exception was taken to this finding. As conclusion of law the court found that the covenants were broken, and that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover against the defendant the amount there mentioned. To this con

The possession of the premises was delivered to and taken by the grantee pursuant to the deed of conveyance in question. This was sufficient estate to carry the covenants of warranty as an incident to the land to the assignee of the grantee, and on his behalf to support an action upon such covenant on being eviqted by title paramount. Beddoe’s Ex'r v. Wadsworth, 21 Wend., 120 ; Fowler v. Poling, 6 Barb., 168 ; Slater v. Rawson, 6 Met., 439 ; Wead v. Larkin, 54 Ill., 489 ; 5 Am., 149.

But treating as found the fact that the covenant of seizin in the «deed was that it was in the defendant’s wife, the question arises whether the defendant’s covenant of quiet enjoyment, etc., ran with the land. He was a grantor named in the deed, and the -covenants were made by him and his wife jointly; and the grantee took by the conveyance an estate in the land. One of the recognized differences between a covenant which is and which is not available to the assigns of a grantee in a deed of conveyance is that the former relates to the estate, is made for its benefit and tends to enhance its value, while the other is collateral to it and does not pass beyond the covenantee. Shep. Touch., 161, 176. The former, in case of grant in fee, does not rest upon privity of estate with the covenantor, but privity, so far as essential for the transmission of the covenant from the covenantee, is with the latter. Norcross v. James, 140 Mass., 188 , 189; Norman v. Wells, 17 Wend., 136 , 150, 151; Pollock’s Law of Contracts, 5th ed., 226; 2 Chitty on Contracts, 11th Am. ed., 1383,1388; Holmes on Common Law, 404. And upon the proposition thatu covenant intended to benefit the land made to the owner by a stranger

In Keppel v. Bayley, 2 Myl. & K., 517, the doctrine of the- Prior and Convent case had no necessary application to the question presented and determined. It was there held that a covenant-made by the proprietors of an iron-works property to transport material for their works from a certain mine over an adjacent railroad was a personal covenant merely, ■ and did not pass by the sale of the iron works so as to charge the vendee with the obligation to perform. There was no relation of lessor and lessee between the parties, nor was there any connection between their estates. And to permit the covenant to run with the land and the burden of it to fall upon the vendee of the covenantor, privity of estate, which did not exist between them, was essential.

And such was the case of Hurd v. Curtis, 19 Pick, 459 , where Mr. Justice Wilde, in delivering the opinion of the court, said: “ There is no exception to the rule that no covenant will run with the land so as to bind the assignee to perform it unless there were a privity of estate between the covenantor and covenantee.” Such was also the case of Cole v. Hughes, 54 N. Y., 444 .. There is no-opportunity to doubt the essentiality of privity of estate between the original parties to a covenant to carry the burden of covenantor to his assignee. That was the principle upon which Bally v. Wells, 3 Wilson, 25, was decided, and where Spencer's case was-thoroughly considered and its doctrine applied. Hor can the soundness of the principle upon which Webb v. Russell, 3 Durn. & E., 393, was determined, be questioned.

There the action was upon the covenant in the lease against the assignee of the lessee to recover rent and for failure to repair. The demurrer to the declaration was sustained because it appeared by it that .the reversion was not in the plaintiff. The privity, of estate requisite to support an action against the assignee of the lessee

This character of such a covenant is recognized by the learned justice in Hurd v. Curtis. He says: “ Covenants of title may be -considered as an exception to the general rule, and the reason for the exception is very strong, for nothing can be more manifestly just than the party who loses his land by a defect of title should have the benefit of the covenants, which were intended to secure an indemnity for the loss. Such a covenant is dependent on the grant, is annexed to it, as part and parcel of the contract, and runs with the land in favor of the assigns of the grantee or covenantee.” Then he proceeds to state, substantially, as before quoted, that to impose a burden upon the assignee the rule that there must be privity of estate between covenantor and covenantee is without exception. And the same distiction was observed by Judge Earl in Cole v. Hughes, in his statement there made, that “ there is a wide difference between the transfer of the burden of

The Priors case has repeatedly received such judicial sanction in this state as to require some reason, which does not now occur to me, why, within its doctrine, a covenant, independent of the grant, made by a stranger to the title, to the owner of the lands and intended for the benefit of his estate, and beneficial to it, may not as such become attached to and pass with it to a subsequent owner. This would not embrace all covenants beneficial to the estate, but only such as are solely for its benefit, and thus for the benefit of the owner alone in his relation to the lands. I do not pursue the consideration of that case, or seek by any reason to sustain or qualify it, because its authority is not deemed essential to the support of the view taken that the defendant’s covenant in the present case passed with the estate in the land to the assigns of the covenantee. He was not a stranger to the terms of the grant, but he was one of the parties named as grantors in the deed by which the conveyance of the estate granted was made, and his covenants of warranty and further assurance were made jointly with his wife. His relation, so far as related to those covenants to the grantee, was no different in any respect or for any purpose than those of the wife, and they went with the estate to the assigns of the grantee. King v. Jones, 5 Taunton, 418; Dickinson v. Hoomes, 8 Gratt., 353 ; Colby, v. Osgood, 29 Barb., 339 . This, as before remarked, is not dependent npon privity of estate, for none exists between the covenantor and the covenantee in a conveyance in fee in the legal sense of the term, nor between the former and the assigns of the latter, but the benefit of the covenants of warranty,, taken by the grantee in the instrument by which the grant is, made, pass to his assigns as an incident to the estate. And in Norman v. Wells, 17 Wend., 149 , 150, Mr. Justice Cowen gives the reason why such covenants are available to an assignee, in the remark : “ Why do charters and covenants for assurance and warranty and the like follow the land ? Because they make part of its value.” 2 Wash. R. P., 4th Ed., 286, 287. And the learned justice in the case last cited approvingly refers to the fact that the court in Vyvyan v. Arthur proceeded upon the Primes case,,

The right of action upon covenants in leases is dependent upon privity of estate existing between the owner of the reversion and the lessee or his assigns ; and the covenants of the lessee are for the benefit of the reversion, and go with it. They pass to his assignee as a burden. Notwithstanding that situation, it was held in Allen v. Quiver, 3 Denio, 284 , that the grantee of the lessor of the reversion could maintain an action against the person who, by a separate instrument made at the same time as the lease, had become surety of the lessee for the payment of the rent. This could rest on the ground only that the covenant of the surety was, in practical effect, inseparable in point of liability with that of the lessee. There privity of estate was not only requisite, but the covenant of the surety was not united in the same instrument with that of the lessee, and by which the demise to him was made. That case, therefore, goes further than is necessary for the support of the liability of the defendant upon his covenants to the assignee of the covenantee. In' the view taken of the case at bar, that of Nesbit v. Montgomery’s Executors, 1 Taylor, N. C., 82, has-no essential bearing upon the question here presented. There the parties who made the deed poll neither had, or pretended to have, any estate in the land, but it appeared by it that they received the consideration in behalf of their daughter, who had the title, and on her behalf bargained and sold the premises, and covenanted that when she arrived at age she would execute further assurance, etc., and if she nullified the sale they would refund to the purchaser double the amount of the purchase money paid by him, and pay him the damages sustained. She afterwards married and her husband asserted the title of his wife, and entered into possession of the portion of the premises which had been conveyed by such purchaser to another, who brought action upon the covenant against the executors of the covenantor. It was finally held that the action could not be supported, for the reason that it appeared upon the face of the declaration that the defendant’s testator neither had, or pretended to have, any title, and in support of the determination was cited Noke v. Awder, Croke’s Eliz., 373, upon which no comment is needed.

In the Nesbit case it appeared by the deed that no estate could pass from the grantors to the grantee which was essential to carry the covenant and without which there was nothing to which it would be attached as an incident or to furnish a medium of transmission of the covenant to the assignee. In the present case there was an estate in the land conveyed and with it the covenants of warranty contained in the deed passed to the assignees of the covenantee. Those of the defendant made jointly with the wife, no

The further question, and the one mainly considered in the court below, is whether the defendant’s covenant was available to the plaintiffs. They became mortgagees of Mancy Fisher while she occupied the premises under the grant from the defendant and his wife. Mrs. Fisher afterwards conveyed to Fuller and he to Clara B. Leavitt, all of whom respectively entered into possession under the several conveyances. While the action of ejectment against Leavitt which resulted in her eviction by title paramount was pending, the plaintiffs commenced their action to foreclose the mortgage made by Fisher, in which decree was obtained pursuant to which the land was sold and purchased by the plaintiffs. They never acquired the possession, and, therefore, were not evicted, but before they obtained the deed of the sale upon the decree, the eviction of Mrs. Leavitt had been accomplished. For those reasons it is insisted on the part of the defendant that the plaintiffs took no right' of action upon the covenant of warranty against the covenantor. This would be so if their rights as purchasers had relation in time to that when the sheriff’s deed was made to them, because then there had been a breach of the covenant and it had become a mere chose in action and a conveyance by Leavitt then made would have been ineffectual to afford any remedy upon it by her grantee. But that was not the situation when the mortgage was made. The foreclosure and sale in practical effect eliminated the defeasance from the mortgage. The plaintiffs as purchasers took the estate which the mortgagor had at the time the mortgage was given and to that time and the situation in that respect as it then was their rights derived from the sale had relation. Rec tor, etc. of Christ Church v. Mack, 93 N. Y., 488 ; Lewis v. Cook, 13 Iredell Law, 193; White v. Whitney, 3 Metc., 81 .

Mrs. Leavitt was a party defendant in the foreclosure action, and whatever estate or right, by way of equity of redemption, she had was cut off and barred and taken by the plaintiffs, who, as purchasers, became assignees of' the interest she had acquired by her purchase of the premises. Howell v. Leavitt, 90 N. Y., 238 . But for the mortgage and its foreclosure her right as incident to the estate conveyed to her was, upon eviction, to seek indemnity by action upon any covenant running with the land to her. And this right of Mrs. Leavitt, annexed to the land as incident to the estate she had purchased, was, as such, taken by the purchasers upon the mortgage foreclosure, and they alone could maintain an action upon the covenant. For the reasons already given, this did not embrace the covenants of her immediate grantor. The consideration of, the mortgage was $15,000. That, and not the amount for which the judicial sale was made, was properly made basis of damages, and recovery by the plaintiffs. Greenvault v. Davis, 4 Hill., 643 .

A different question in this respect may have been presented if a person other than the mortgagees had purchased the property on the foreclosure sale.

The judgment should be affirmed.

Judgment reversed and a new trial granted, with costs to abide event.

All concur, except Bradley, Haight and Brown, JJ., dissenting.