In re Distribution of Proceeds from Sheriff's Sale of Premises 250 Bell Road, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County
Superior Court of Pennsylvania
345 A.2d 921 (1975)
Boenning (plaintiff) held an unrecorded judgment against property owners whose land was later foreclosed and sold at sheriff's sale, and the sheriff's proposed distribution schedule omitted Boenning's claim entirely because it had never been recorded; McCoy (defendant) took a recorded mortgage on the property after Boenning's judgment but with actual knowledge of it, while Margolies and Jay Vending (defendants) later took recorded mortgages without any knowledge of Boenning's unrecorded judgment. The trial court applied simple first-in-time priority favoring Boenning over all three subsequent mortgagees, and McCoy, Margolies, and Jay appealed.
Whether the temporal priority rule of first in time, first in right applies when a circuitous lien priority dispute results from a prior lienholder's failure to record the prior lien.