Ashurst v. Ashurst

119 Ala. 219
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJuly 1, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 119 Ala. 219 (Ashurst v. Ashurst) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ashurst v. Ashurst, 119 Ala. 219 (Ala. 1898).

Opinion

HARALSON, J.-

The bill in this case was filed by the appellant, J. V. Ashurst, against Robert T. Ashurst, Henry C. Semple and The American Freehold Land Mortgage Company of'London, Limited, the real defendant in interest being the said Mortgage Company, hereafter referred to as the London Company. The bill was filed in the chancery court of Montgomery, to enforce the collection of a decree in said court, rendered on the 31st May, 1878, in favor of said Henry C. Semple against said Robert T. Ashurst, whereby it was adjudged, that said Semple has a lien on the lands mentioned in this bill, to pay a large debt owing by said Ashurst to said Semple, which lien it is claimed is superior to that of the London Company, under a mortgage given by said Ashurst to it in 1886. The complainant, J. V. Ashurst, claims said Semple decree, by assignment thereof by said Semple, and the contention between the parties is, as to which has the superior lien- — the appellant under said decree, or the London Company under its said mortgage.

In respect of the claim of the company, the complainant alleged, “that the rights of said foreign corporation, if any it has, are subordinate to orator’s rights; that said corporation had notice of orator’s rights in the [223]*223premises, at and before the acquisition of its lien on said property, and that the said lien or mortgage in favor of the said foreign corporation was given for and upon a loan of money to the said Robert T. Ashurst, made in the State of New York at a greater rate of interest than six per cent, per annum. The statute of New York, making void all bonds, bills, notes, assurances or securities whatever, whereby a greater rate of interest than six per cent, per annum is charged, was set out in full, and admitted to be correct.

The London Company, denying generally the allegations of the bill, sets up the defense that the loan was procured by said Ashurst with the aid of his son, the complainant, who Avas active in procuring said loan to be made, and he is, therefore, estopped to deny its validity; that the London Company, when it made the loan, did so without any knowledge of complainant’s alleged lien, and when it was induced by complainant to believe that he had no lien; that it is a dona fide purchaser for' value without notice of complainant’s claim or lien on said lands, and denies that said mortgage and notes Avere NeAV York contracts, and sets up that they were executed in Alabama, and are governed by the laws of that State.

The defense against usury set up in the bill, was interposed in section three of defendant’s answer. It is claimed by appellant that this section of the answer was stricken out by an amendment. The only record evidence appearing touching an amendment, is found on page 83 of the transcript, where the minute entry of June 20th, 1892, recites, that a previous submission of the cause Avas set aside, and defendant, the London Company, was allowed to file an amended answer and taire additional testimony; but no amended answer appears in the transcript. , Again, on page 108 of the transcript, among the orders of court — copies, as seems, of the entries on the trial docket of the court — appears this entry: “April 11th, 1893. Testimony ordered published. The answer is amended by striking out section 3 of the same, and counsel objects to the allowance of the amendment. Cause submitted.” No minute entry of this order, or of any such amendment of the answer, appears in the transcript. Section 657 of the Code of 1896, subcl. 2 — the same in the Code of 1886 — requires the reg[224]*224ister to keep a docket, in which must be entered, among other things, “a note of all orders and proceedings.” These notes, however, in the absence of a statute making them such, are no part of the record of the cause, but are memoranda or bench notes from which the record is to be made up. — 20 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 491, and authorities there cited. The evidence is lacking therefore, to show that said section three of the answer was ever stricken out, and it must be treated as still in the record.

It is not disputed that the appellant, as between himself and Robert T. Ashurst, is the owner of the lien and claim of said Semple, and as against him, may enforce the same by a sale of the lands mentioned in the bill as covered by and subject to said lien. Nor is it disputed, that as between the London Company and the said Robert T. Ashurst, said company is entitled to enforce its mortgage on said lands, by a foreclosure thereof, for the satisfaction of the mortgage lien. We may, therefore, pretermit a statement of the title from the same original source to each of the parties, the only question being, as above stated, as to which of the respective liens is superior — that of complainant or the one of said London Company.

It was shown that about the 3d of February, 1882, said. Robt. T. Ashurst, the defendant in said Semple decree, and a defendant to this suit, desiring to procure a loan of money upon the security of the lands mentioned in the bill, applied to W. P. Pinkard as his agent, to negotiate for him a loan of $2,250, to be secured by a mortgage on said lands, and that said Pinkard, through his correspondents in the city of New York, obtained said loan from the New England Mortgage Security Company, whose office was in Boston, Massachusetts, at which place the application for the loan was accepted, and afterwards, on the 4th of April, 1882, the said company made said loan to said Robt. T. through his said agent, and received from him a mortgage on said lands duly executed by said Robt. T. and his wife Julia F., and a note payable for the money secured by said mortgage. Said note was payable on the first of April, 1887, at the office of the Corbin Banking Company, New York, and bore interest at 8 per cent, per annum, with annual interest coupons attached. This mortgage was duly [225]*225filed for record in probate offices of Tallapoosa and Macon counties, where the lands lay, in the first named county, on 31st March, 1882, and in the latter, on the 4th April, 1882.

It was shown that said Robt. T. Ashurst, in making’ application for said loan, stated that the lands to be mortgaged were entirely free from encumbrances, except as shown by the abstract of title; and that he represented in the abstract that the balance due on the decree in the case of Semple v. R. T. Ashurst was |200, which he would pay off before making the mortgage.. The date of the mortgage was the 23d of March, 1882,. and on the margin of the record of the decree in. said chancery court in the case of Henry C. Semple v. Robt. T. Ashurst, was the following entry: “This decree has been compromised and settled by the defendant with me, and is declared satisfied as to the complainant’s demand. Henry C. Semple, March 24th, 1882.”

On the 3d February, 1882, said Robert T. Ashurst, in making said application for the loan, made and signed an affidavit in which he stated the source of the title as derived from said Jos. J. Wright, who was in possession of said lands from 1848 to 1857, when he sold (under bond for title) and delivered possession to Robert Thompson, who entered upon and continued in possession until 1862, Avhen he sold and delivered [possession to said John McKenzie and Jos. H. Wright, Avho, in the same year, sold and delivered possession to him, the said Robert T., and that said parties were, during the whole period of their respective possessions, in the actual, open, notorious, adverse and hostile possession of said lands, claiming and asserting ownership thereof.

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Bluebook (online)
119 Ala. 219, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ashurst-v-ashurst-ala-1898.