Page:United States Reports, Volume 257.djvu/104

Rh 10. The provision in the Mississippi Code of 1871 as to the place of sales on execution was as follows:

"846. All sales by any sheriff or other officer, by virtue of any execution or other process, shall be made at the court house of the county, except when personal property, too cumbersome to be removed, shall be levied on, which may be sold at the place where the same may be found, or at any other convenient place, and also, except where cattle, hogs, sheep, or stock, other than horses and mules, are levied on, the sale of which may be made within the usual hours, on ten days' notice, at the most public place in the neighborhood bf the defendant."

The Supreme Court of Mississippi has decided in Koch v. Bridges, 45 Miss. 247, and Jones v. Rogers, 85 Miss. 802, that, where land is not sold at the proper county court house, the sale is void. In Jones v. Rogers the sale was by a United States marshal. It was made at the State House in Jackson. A special Act of Congress of February 16, 1839, c. 27, 5 Stat. 317,. provided that the United States marshal for the district of Mississippi should be authorized to sell property at the court house in each county, but that he might, at the written request of the defendant, change the sale to the place where the United States court for the district was held. The court, in the absence of any request of the defendant, held the sale void, saying:

"Statutes fixing the place of sale of lands under executions are mandatory, and not merely directory; and it is the imperative duty of officers to make such sales at the very place designated, and a sale made at any other place is not voidable merely but absolutely null and void. The place of sale is the very, essence of the sale, and strict compliance with the statute is absolutely essential in order to transfer a good title to realty."