Binghamton Sav. Bank v. White

32 N.Y.S. 657, 92 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 75, 66 N.Y. St. Rep. 40
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 32 N.Y.S. 657 (Binghamton Sav. Bank v. White) 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
Binghamton Sav. Bank v. White, 32 N.Y.S. 657, 92 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 75, 66 N.Y. St. Rep. 40 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1895).

Opinion

HARDIN, P. J.

Manifestly the purchase price of the undivided quarter conveyed by May E. White to Fred L. White has never been paid by him to her, or to her appointee for her benefit. When the conveyance was made by her, her deed contained the covenant on the part of her grantee, Fred L. White, that the purchase price to the extent of $2,500 should be paid to her creditor, the plaintiff, who held her personal covenant as well as her mortgage to secure the sum upon her undivided half of the premises mentioned in the mortgage. As soon as Fred White accepted the conveyance from his sister, May E. White, with the conditions and covenants as to payments of the purchase price mentioned in the deed, the plaintiff became entitled to receive the purchase money mentioned in said deed, and to main[660]*660tain an action against Fred L. White for the payment of the purchase price, inasmuch as May E. White was personally liable to the plaintiff for the debt secured by her to the plaintiff. Carrier v. Paper Co., 73 Hun, 287, 26 N. Y. Supp. 414; Vrooman v. Turner, 69 N. Y. 282; Lawrence v. Fox, 20 N. Y. 268; Pardee v. Treet, 82 N. Y. 389. It was said in Burr v. Beers, 24 N. Y. 179, and in Garnsey v. Rogers, 47 N. Y. 242, that the liability of the grantee to the mortgagee rested upon the equitable right of subrogation; and, in referring to that doctrine, Finch, J., says, in Gifford v. Corrigan, 117 N. Y. 264, 22 N. E. 756, viz.:

“It was held that, where the mortgagor acquired a new security for his indemnity against the debt which he owed to the mortgagee, the latter might, in equity, be subrogated to the right of his debtor; and, under the statute permitting any person liable for the mortgage debt to be made defendant, and charged with the deficiency in the foreclosure, the new covenant became available to the mortgagee.”

And the same judge, later on, in the same case, seems to approve of the suggestion of Andrews, J., given in the following language:

“After all, does not the direct right of action rest upon the equity of the transaction!”

The doctrine stated in Gifford v. Corrigan, supra, was approved and restated in Townsend v. Rackham, 143 N. Y. 522, 38 N. E. 731. See Gifford v. Corrigan, 105 N. Y., near the close of the opinion, at page 229, 11 N. E. 498. In Insurance Co. v. Aitken, 125 N. Y. 660, 26 N. E. 732, it was said that a covenant in a deed, whereby the grantee assumes and agrees to pay a mortgage after it has come to the knowledge of the owner of the mortgage, and has been adopted by him as security for his own benefit, “may not be released by the grantor without the assent of the mortgage creditor, and such a release is no defense to an action brought by the latter upon the covenant.” And in Post v. Railroad Co., 123 N. Y. 580, 26 N. E. 7, it was held that:

“An undertaking in a deed on the part of the grantee to perform certain acts becomes, on delivery of the deed to and acceptance by him, effectual as a contract on his part to perform the undertaking; ' and, upon refusal on his part to perform, an action for specific performance or for damage is maintainable.”

The performance of the covenant by Fred, the grantee in the deed, by payment to the plaintiff, would have been for the benefit of the grantor, as she had a legal interest that the covenant be performed in favor of the plaintiff. Durnherr v. Rau, 135 N. Y. 219, 32 N. E. 49. In the case in hand the covenant was entered into for the benefit of the grantor, and such benefit would inure to her by the performance, and it was, therefore, within the contemplation of the parties that a benefit would accrue to her by the performance of the covenant on the part of the grantee in the deed. In King v. Whitely, 10 Paige, 468, it was said that the principle of the cases “is that, in equity, the creditor is entitled to the benefit of all collateral obligations for the payment of the debt which a person standing in the situation of a surety for others has received for his indemnity, and to relieve him or his property from liability for such payment.” See Curtis v. Tyler, 9 Paige, 435; Halsey v. Reed, 9 Paige, 451. The [661]*661lien for unpaid purchase money which accrued in favor of May E. White at the time of the conveyance was not waived, satisfied, or canceled by the covenant inserted in the deed which she made to her grantee, Fred L. White. 2 Washb. Real Prop. (3d Ed.) p. 90, § 16, (*507); Maroney v. Boyle, 141 N. Y. 462, 36 N. E. 511. May E. White did not expressly and consciously waive her lien for unpaid purchase money; on the contrary, she inserted a clause in the deed which she gave, requiring it to be satisfied by paying the same upon an indebtedness for which she was personally liable to the plaintiff. The effect of the stipulation in her deed to Fred was to render him personally liable, as well as the land which he received from her, to pay the purchase price therefor by applying it upon an indebtedness of hers to the savings bank, the plaintiff. The recitals in her deed to Fred, and the statement that the purchase price was unpaid, were, in effect, notice to his subsequent grantees or incumbrancers of the fact that the purchase money was to be paid to the plaintiff, and that at the time she received the deed she had not paid therefor. Being notice of such facts to his subsequent grantees or incumbrancers, they are presumed to have been put upon inquiry, and, upon inquiry, to have ascertained the actual situation in respect to the nonpayment of the purchase price. Williamson v. Brown, 15 N. Y. 354; Pitney v. Leonard, 1 Paige, 461; Insurance Co. v. Halsey, 8 N Y. 272; Brush v. Ware, 15 Pet. 93; Jumel v. Jumel, 7 Paige, 591; Acer v. Westcott, 46 N. Y. 384.

Question of constructive notice was involved in McPherson v. Rollins, 107 FT. Y. 322, 14 FT. E. 411, and in the course of the opinion upon that question, it was said:

“As intending purchasers, they must be presumed to investigate the title, and to examine every deed or instrument forming a part of it, especially if recorded. They must, therefore, be deemed to have known every fact so disclosed (Acer v. Westcott, 46 N. Y. 384), and every other fact which an inquiry suggested by those records would have led up to.”

In Cordova v. Hood, 17 Wall. 1, it was held that, where a deed of land shows on its face that the consideration is yet “to be paid,” a second purchaser, who has notice of the deed, takes the land subject to the vendor’s lien, “unless such a lien has been in some way waived. In the case of such a deed it is the duty of the new purchaser to inquire; and, where inquiry is the duty, the party bound to make inquiry is affected with all the knowledge which he would have got had he inquired.” Russell v. Pistor, 7 N. Y. 171. Undoubtedly it is true that, if the trust company was a lienor or grantee without notice of the unpaid purchase money, and for a valuable consideration, it might maintain its right to the land as against May E. White, or her appointee. Maroney v. Boyle, supra It was said in Garson v. Green, 1 Johns. Ch. 308, that a vendor has a lien upon the estate sold for the purchase money while the estate is in the hands of the vendee, and that, prima facie, the purchase money is a lien, and it lies on the vendee to show the contrary. Camp v. Gifford, 67 Barb. 434. In Bradley v. Boseley, 1 Barb. Ch. 125, it was said that a person having an equitable lien upon land for the unpaid purchase money may apply to a court of [662]*662equity in the first instance to enforce the lien without resorting to a suit at law to recover the amount. In Benedict v.

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Bluebook (online)
32 N.Y.S. 657, 92 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 75, 66 N.Y. St. Rep. 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/binghamton-sav-bank-v-white-nysupct-1895.