EX PARTE CUDD

Messrs. John Gary Evans and R.B. Pasley, for appellant, submit: The rule of caveat emptor does not apply at judicial sales of property for partition; the officer making the sale is agent of the parties to the action, and his representations are binding upon them: 86 S.C. 226; 58 S.C. 477. Even when the misrepresentation was innocently made, as was in this case, and when it further appears that he relied not upon his own investigation and judgment, but upon such misrepresentation, and that it was the principal inducement to the purchase, he is entitled in an action brought against him for the purchase money, to relief which, according to the circumstances, consists in a pro tanto abatement of the purchase price or in a total recession of the contract: 86 S.C. 228; 2 Hill 657; 41 S.C. 508. The Courts will afford reasonable opportunity for the investigation of the titles to property sold under its order: 86 S.C. 226; 69 S.C. 263. Messrs. Johnson, Nash, Lyles Daniel, for respondent.