Bockes v. Hathorn

27 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 503
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1880
StatusPublished

This text of 27 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 503 (Bockes v. Hathorn) 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
Bockes v. Hathorn, 27 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 503 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1880).

Opinion

Learned, P. J. :

Tbe first action was commenced by Augustus Bockes and Chauncey Kilmer, two of tbe trustees of a mortgage for bondholders, to foreclose tbe same. Tbe thbd trustee was made a party defendant, because he was also a trustee in a second mortgage. After it bad been commenced, Kilmer refused to continue as plaintiff, and was, by order, made defendant.

Kilmer then commenced the second action as trustee, making tbe other trustees parties, and making others defendants, and asking a foreclosure. The complaint also set up matters alleged [508]*508to make an equitable lien on personal property, and also matters tending to sliow that some of the bonds and coupons had been paid or extinguished.

To the complaint in this second action demurrers were interposed. On argument before Justice LaNdoN the demurrers were sustained. After the demurrers had been sustained; all the parties to both the actions united in a stipulation, by which it was agreed, among other things, that the order sustaining the demurrer and the appeals therefrom be waived, vacated and set aside ; that the actions be tried together on the pleadings and on the proofs to be submitted at the trial on a reference, and that all matters and questions involved therein be submitted on such trial, to be there 'passed upon. On this stipulation an order of reference was made, and the actions were tried. The referee’s report passes on the matters in dispute between the parties, and settles their rights. Among other things he decides that the plaintiff in the second entitled action is entitled to judgment on the demurrer, but without costs. One of the questions made on this appeal is on the correctness of that decision.

So far as we can see, this presents merely a question of costs. The matters of fact, alleged in the complaint in the second action, in regard to the alleged payment of bonds and coupons, and other similar questions, seem to have been litigated before the referee and to have been decided by him. Some of these matters, as we have had occasion to suggest on a previous occasion, might more properly have been tried, after a foreclosure and sale in a proceeding for the distribution of the avails held in trust. That seems to have been the view taken, and we think correctly, by the able counsel who commenced the first action. If that course had been followed, there would have been less delay, perplexity and costs. The property could have been sold speedily, as a sale was unquestionably necessary, and when the avails were in the hands of the trustees they could have proceeded, under the authority of the court, to divide them among rightful claimants. But in fact another course was followed, and the referee has examined and passed upon the claims of the bondholders and holders of coupons before the sale of the property had been adjudged. In doing this, he seems to have tried the allegations set up in the complaint [509]*509in the second action as matters of fact, as if there had been an answer. And we think that this was the intention of the stipulation. The parties would hardly have stipulated away a decision upon a demurrer, merely to have another decision thereon made by the referee. Such a course would have been meaningless. And it will be noticed that, in regard to both actions, the stipulation is that they are to be tried on pleadings and proofs. Of course there would be no proofs in the second action, if only the demurrer was to be argued. In our opinion, then, we see no reason for examining a point which was practically waived by proceeding with the trial, and by vacating the order, and which can only be material upon the question of costs.

On the merits of the case an appeal is taken by the plaintiff in' the first action in behalf of certain banks and parties, and also by certain banks in their own names. The questions to be' raised on the case seem to be confined to the rejection of certain coupons and certain bonds.

There is no judgment over for deficiency. The mortgaged premises are directed to be sold,' and the avails, after costs, etc., to be paid to the trustees of the first mortgage. From the avails the trustees are directed to pay certain bonds and coupons mentioned in the report of the referee, issued under the first mortgage, and to hold the balance to await the order of the court. It does not appear that the owner of the equity of redemption, or the trustees of the second mortgage, have appealed from the judgment on the merits. The trustees of the second mortgage appealed from the overruling of the demurrer in the second action. But that does not affect the merits. The appeals, therefore, are really from that part of the judgment which determines the distribution of the avails in the trustees’ hands.

The bonds secured by this mortgage were executed by Hathorn, payable in ten equal annual payments with interest. The coupons attached to each bond were for the respective installments of principal and for the- interest on unpaid principal, and were payable at the First National Bank, New York.

About September 1, 1874, the Ballston Spa National Bank entered into a written agreement with Hathorn and with Hathorn & Southgate. They gave their notes to the bank for $15,000, [510]*510which were discounted in the ordinary manner. And they signed an agreement stating that the bank had “ put into my (Hathorn’s) hands $15,000 for the purpose of purchasing of the present owners thereof the same amount of coupons secured by my bonds and the mortgage, etc., payable this day, which I (Hathorn) agree to apply to that purpose and no other ; said coupons to become the property of and to be delivered to said bank, and to remain a lien on said promises.” In pursuance of that arrangement, communicated to the Commercial Bank, that bank, about the 1st of September, 1874, cashed certain coupons to the amount of $14,569.20, for which amount Hathorn drew on the Ballston Spa Bank, 'in favor of the Commercial Bank, on or before September 8, 1874. The money thus advanced by the Ballston Spa Bank has not been repaid. The bondholders who received the cash for these coupons received the same, as they had done in former years, supposing the coupons to be paid thereby.

The question is, as between the Ballston Spa Bank and the bond-holders, did the bank pay these coupons on Hathorn’s behalf, or buy them on its own ? The written agreement is distinct on that point. Hathorn, the mortgagor, borrowed the $15,000 of the bank, giving the security also of Southgate. The borrowed money then became his. He drew for it by his check. He agreed to apply it to these coupons, and he did so. An application by Hathorn of Hathorn’s money to Hathorn’s debt was a payment. That he should agree with the bank that, after he had paid his debt, they might hold his paid debt as security for their loan to him might be good between him and them, but could not be good against others. (Harbeck v. Vanderbilt, 20 N. Y., 395.)

In Union Trust Co. v. Monticello and P. J. R. Co. (63 N. Y., 311), Smith was not allowed to share pro rata, although he was not himself the mortgagor or debtor, but a volunteer. In Ketchum v. Duncan (96 U. S., 662), the firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co. had advanced money and bought coupons. They had not loaned money to the railroad company. The court in its opinion states, as beyond doubt, that the coupons were not paid with money or funds furnished by the railroad company, and that they were not paid by any one, in pursuance of an agreement made with [511]

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Bluebook (online)
27 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bockes-v-hathorn-nysupct-1880.