Bernard v. Baldwin

106 Misc. 631
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 106 Misc. 631 (Bernard v. Baldwin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bernard v. Baldwin, 106 Misc. 631 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1919).

Opinion

Kellogg, A. L., J.

This is an action for partition. An answer has been served by the defendant Ida L. Baldwin, which is interposed as a complete defense, upon the ground that a prior action is pending, involving the same real estate which is described in the complaint.

The former action was brought by Ida L. Baldwin against Amelia Graney et al., for the partition of two separate and distinct parcels of real property, all of which was owned by John Grraney and Ida L. Baldwin as tenants in common, prior to September 14, 1918. On the date last mentioned, John G-raney and his wife executed and delivered to this plaintiff, Bernard, a warranty deed of all of their right, title and interest in one of the parcels in question, and of which partition is sought in this action. This plaintiff, Bernard, had been in possession of the parcel so conveyed to him for a number of years, as tenant of the owners of the fee, to wit, John G-raney and Melvin E. Baldwin. After the death of Melvin E. Baldwin, and the probate of his will, Bernard was the tenant of John G-raney and this defendant Ida L. Baldwin. It is undisputed that the defendant Ida L. Baldwin had no notice or knowledge of plaintiff’s claim of ownership until she was served with the summons in this action.

[633]*633John Graney died on October 16, 1918, and, upon the probate of his last will and testament, Amelia Graney became the owner of his interest in the parcel numbered 2 in the former action, wherein this defendant Ida L. Baldwin is plaintiff. Amelia Graney was never the owner of the parcel described in the complaint in this action, for the reason above mentioned, that her husband, prior to his death, as one of the owners of the fee, had duly conveyed his interest in the same to this plaintiff Bernard.

The former action was commenced by the service of the summons and complaint on Amelia Graney, December 21, 1918, and the same, together with the lis pen-dens, were filed in Otsego county clerk’s office on the same date.

The complaint in the former action alleges that the plaintiff Ida L. Baldwin and the defendant Amelia Graney are the owners as tenants in common of both parcels, and demands judgment directing their sale. Herbert Bernard, the plaintiff herein, was made a party defendant as one of the tenants in possession.

The deed from Graney and his wife, Amelia Graney, to Bernard was not recorded until after the commencement of the first action and the recording of the lis pendens therein.

The defendant Ida L. Baldwin contends that, having duly filed her lis pendens in the action in which she is plaintiff before the recording of the deed from Graney to Bernard, the complaint in this action must be dismissed, and that the two parcels of real estate in question must be sold under a judgment in the prior action.

It is the claim of the plaintiff Bernard, here, that in order to sustain the contentions of the defendant Baldwin it must be held, that an action of partition can be maintained by a plaintiff who is a tenant in common of one parcel with one tenant, and a tenant in [634]*634common of another and distinct parcel with another tenant, with no common interest in such separate parcels between such tenants.

That would have been the situation had the plaintiff Bernard promptly recorded his deed, after its execution and delivery to him by Graney. But, not having recorded his deed until after the service of the summons and complaint, and filing of the lis pendens in the first action, the plaintiff therein, Ida L. Baldwin, had a right to assume that at the time she commenced her action, Amelia Graney and herself were tenants in common of all real estate which she had described in her complaint.

The service of the summons and complaint on Amelia Graney and filing of the lis pendens prior to the recording of the deed from Graney to Bernard, charged this plaintiff, Bernard, with the result of that action, and the real estate therein described is subject to its burden.

Section 1671 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides as follows: ‘ ‘ Where a notice of the pendency of an action may be filed, as prescribed in the last section, the pendency of the action is constructive notice, from the time of so filing the notice only, to a purchaser or incumbrancer of the property affected thereby, from or against a defendant, with respect to whom the notice is directed to be indexed, as prescribed in the next section. A person, whose conveyance or incumbrance is subsequently executed, or subsequently recorded, is bound by all proceedings taken in the action, after the filing of the notice, to the same extent as if he was a party to the action.”

The above was formerly section 132 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and was amended in 1858, by the addition of the words or subsequently recorded.” Cases decided on the point in question, therefore, prior to 1858, have no application here.

[635]*635The effect of this section is to make the property involved in the litigation, subject to the burden of the prior action as against holders of unrecorded deeds and instruments executed after the filing of notice of pendency therein, and indexed against all persons having an interest in the property. The holder of an unrecorded deed is placed in the same position as a grantee after the filing and indexing of the notice.

In Kursheedt v. Union Dime S. Inst., 118 N. Y. 359, Bradley, J., in writing for the court, in that case, on page 363, says: “ Prior to the Code, the failure to record a conveyance made subsequently to a mortgage and prior to the commencement of an action, for its foreclosure or filing Us pendens, did not obviate the necessity of making such subsequent grantee a party defendant, to bar his right of redemption. Those not made parties, and thus affected by the judgment were purchasers and incumbrancers who became such pendente lite. The provisions of the Code so modified the rule as to make the action and its result effectual as against subsequent purchasers and incumbrancers, whose conveyances are not recorded at the time of filing the notice of pendency of the action. This may not be the rule when a plaintiff in such action has actual notice of the unrecorded incumbrance at the time of its commencement. Lamonte v. Cheshire, 65 N. Y. 30. There is no occasion here to consider that question. It was contemplated by the provisions referred to of the Code, that those whose conveyances or incumbrances appear by the record should be made parties, in order to charge, with the result of the action, those holding under them not made parties, whose interests do not so appear of record at the time of filing such notice. That is to say, that the latter should be barred by charging the former as defendants in the action.”

In St. Regis Paper Co. v. Santa Clara Co., 62 App. [636]*636Div. 538, S. Alonzo Kellogg, J., at page 541, says: The effect of filing a lis pendens is to make subsequent grantees and incumbrancers parties to the action so far as the rights acquired by them in the property are concerned, and in this sense, it has all of the force of an attachment upon property, with none of the liabilities attending that remedial assistance. But this condition is á matter for the Legislature exclusively.

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Bluebook (online)
106 Misc. 631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bernard-v-baldwin-nysupct-1919.