Ayre v. Hixson

98 P. 515, 53 Or. 19, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 175
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 98 P. 515 (Ayre v. Hixson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ayre v. Hixson, 98 P. 515, 53 Or. 19, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 175 (Or. 1908).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Eakin

delivered the opinion of the court.

1. At the outset plaintiff contends that because the defendants Brasfield Bros, joined with Hixson & Ames in the original answer, and therefore could make no defense not common to all the defendants so answering, they cannot now by their several answers avail themselves of the defense that they were innocent purchasers. At the time the complaint was amended, defendants, by consent of the court, reserved the right to move against or to answer the same at a subsequent time. This was prior to the taking of any evidence; and in filing their answer to the amended complaint they were not bound to adhere to the defenses of the original answer, nor were they precluded by the several answers from making any defense otherwise available to them.

2. The first contention of the defendants Brasfield Bros, is that there is no evidence before the court that any of the mortgages were recorded, and that the burden is upon plaintiff to prove notice thereof. At the trial the original mortgages were identified and offered in evidence. On the back of these is certified the time when they were received, and a reference to the book and page [26]*26in which they were recorded, .but such certificate was not identified or offered in evidence. Section 5357, B. & C. Comp., is expressly made applicable to chattel mortgages by Section 5634, 'B. & C. Comp., and provides that the county clerk shall certify on every conveyance recorded, the time when received and the place of record; and every conveyance shall be considered recorded at that time. Such a certificate would be evidence of the time and place of record, if offered in evidence; but not being identified or offered, it is not before the court. This certificate is no part of the mortgage identified by the witness nor is it part of the “conveyance duly acknowledged,” which is made competent evidence without further proof by Section 5355, B. & C. Comp., but is an independent instrument executed at a different time and by a different person. In Drexel v. Murphy, 59 Neb. 210 (80 N. W. 813), it was held that a certified copy of a chattel mortgage offered in evidence was not an offer of the indorsement thereon of the filing. To the same effect is Fuller v. Brownell, 48 Neb. 145 (67 N. W. 6). Therefore, the certificate of record indorsed on the mortgage is not before the court as evidence of such record.

3. The defendants also objected to the mortgage of February 12, 1907, for the reason that it is not recorded as provided by Section 5631, B. & C. Comp., viz., that it is recorded in the record of mortgages of real property, but not indexed in. the general index of chattel mortgages. That section provides that chattel mortgages shall be recorded in a book kept exclusively for that purpose, and a general index thereof kept by the recorder; but if the instrument is “intended to operate as a mortgage of real property, as well as a mortgage of personal property, such instrument may be recorded in the records of mortgages of real property, and such county clerk or recorder of conveyances . in whose office the same is recorded, shall index the same in the general index of [27]*27mortgages of personal property or chattel mortgages as well as in the general index of mortgages of real property, and the same need not be recorded in the records of mortgages of personal property.” Section 5633, B. & C. Comp., provides that every mortgage of personal property alone or with real property, if not accompanied by immediate delivery and continued change of possession, or which shall not be recorded as provided in Section 5631, shall be void against subsequent purchasers in good faith for a valuable consideration. When a mortgage is intended as a mortgage of both real and personal property, only when it is recorded in the record of mortgages of real property and indexed in the general index of chattel mortgages is the mortgagee excused from having it recorded in the book of chattel mortgages. The general index of chattel mortgages is the only means provided by Section 5631 by which third parties may find a chattel mortgage recorded only in the record of mortgages of real property. Therefore, by the terms of the statute the indexing in such a case is a part of the recording, and that mortgage was not at the time of the purchase by Brasfield Bros, so recorded as to be constructive notice thereof.

4. However, defendants Brasfield Bros., as a defense to the mortgages set out in the complaint, which are prior to their purchase, affirmatively allege in their answer that at the time of their purchase they “had no knowledge or notice, either actual or constructive, that plaintiff had or claimed any mortgage or other claim or lien upon or against said sheep, or any thereof, and that said defendants were and are innocent purchasers for value of said sheep.” This is a necessary allegation under the provisions of Section 5633, B. & C. Comp., above mentioned, and the burden is upon defendants to prove it.

5. It is said in Haines v. Connell, 48 Or. 469, 474 (87 Pac. 265: 88 Pac. 872: 120 Am. St. Rep. 835), that the denial of the averments of the complaint did not entitle [28]*28defendants to make the defense of a bona fide purchaser. That was affirmative matter which they were required to plead in their answer, notwithstanding the allegations of the complaint. It is also so held in Rhodes v. McGarry, 19 Or. 222 (23 Pac. 971); Jennings v. Lentz, 50 Or. 483 (93 Pac. 327), and in many other cases in this court. In Laurent v. Lanning, 32 Or. 11 (51 Pac. 80), it is held necessary for the attaching creditor to show that plaintiffs’ “mortgage was unrecorded at the time he in good faith acquired the judgment; that is to say, in order to advance his equity above that of the plaintiffs, he must show plaintiffs’ laches in not complying with the terms of the statute under which he claims superior right, and this imposes upon him the duty of showing the want of record.” Among the decisions of other states there is a want of uniformity upon this point. The following, however, support this view: Wyse v. Dandridge, 35 Miss. 672 (72 Am. Dec. 149); Fowler v. Merrill, 11 How. 375 (13 L. Ed. 736); Diemer V. Guernsey, 112 Iowa, 393 (83 N. W. 1047); Wright v. Larson, 51 Minn. 321 (53 N. W. 712: 38 Am. Rep. 504); Ransom v. Schmela, 13 Neb. 73 (12 N. W. 926). Therefore, the burden is upon the defendants claiming to be purchasers without notice of the prior liens of plaintiff to prove such want of notice, either actual or constructive. The answer alleges want of notice, and there is some evidence tending to show that the purchase was made without actual notice, but not that it was without constructive notice. The defendant Geo. Brasfield testified that the 1905 mortgage was recorded, and there is no evidence that it or the two prior ones were not duly recorded.

6. As to the question of actual notice to defendants Brasfield Bros., Oxman testified that he had had a conversation with the defendant Geo. Brasfield, some time in September, before the delivery of the sheep, near the Stockman’s Saloon down on Front street, in which conversation Geo. Brasfield, referring to the purchase of the [29]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
98 P. 515, 53 Or. 19, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ayre-v-hixson-or-1908.