Edward Douglass White

“ We cannot adopt a theory of construction which substantially asserts that the half is equal to the whole. To enforce, then, against the money given by congress to the owner, the rights of the mortgage creditor, on the theory that it represents the entire value of the property, would be indulging in an untrue hypothesis to justify, not only a repudiation of the express words of the law, but also a refusal to execute its manifest intent. Doubtless, both the rights of the owner and those of the mortgage creditor were operated on by the tax sale. ”

“ The mere fact that a creditor held security at a given time does not exclude the possibility of the debt having been paid subsequent to the sale, or of its having perished by limitation, or having been extinguished in some other lawful way. To hold that the payment must be made, therefore, to one who was a creditor at the time of the sale, would imply that congress intended to make a payment to one who might not be a cerditor at the time of the payment, although he may have been such creditor when the sale was made. ”

“ Construing the words 'legal owner' in a strictly literal and purely technical sense, it is clear that, under the law of South Carolina, a mortgage creditor was not such legal owner. Without considering whether a mortgage creditor, under the common law, might be technically held to be the legal owner, within the meaning of the act of 1891, it is plain that the statute law of South Carolina made the position of a mortgagee merely that of a creditor with security. ”