Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/708

 BLACKB0EN ». S. B. CO. 701 �ing interest and commissions for disbursement, and the costs of the application. Proper directions as to advertisement will be indieated wiien the decree is drawn. ���Upon announcing the foregoing decision the first pur- chasers, in open court, offered to jncrease their bids, respect- ively, to the same amounts as those advanced, and claim a preference. I think they are entitled to this. Unless the applicants make a further advance the biddings will not be opened. Morton y. Sloan, 11 Humph. 278. The report of sale will be amended to show that the first purchasers bid the amounts now ofEered, and the further hearing of the applica- tion is postponed to allow time for a further advance. Sub- sequently, there being another advance of $500, the first purchaser offers the same sum, and moves for a confirmation unless there shall be a still further advance. I do not think this preference to the first purchaser can be further extended. I find nô authority for it except Morton v. Sloan, supra, and I am not disposed to extend it bëyond that case, for the ob- vions reason that the resale would be confined to these two persons, and the praotice degenerates into a mere auction by the court to only two bidders, with an advantage to one of an option to take the property at whatever price the other is willing to give. I do not think consideration for the first pur- chaser demands that he should have this preference, as it resulta in leaving to him, and not the court, the determina- tion of the question whether there shall be a resale. It is true that a re-sale is not a matter of right in the advance bidder ; that the court may stipulate for the price on a resale, and this process may force the applicant to offer the most he is willing to give, and thus, in some degree, there may be a guaranty against trivial applications to open the biddings ; but, finding no warrant for the practice thus indieated, I can- not engraft on the settled practice, which I feel bound to fol- low, notwithstanding my aversion to it. ����