Borden v. McNamara

127 N.W. 104, 20 N.D. 225, 1910 N.D. LEXIS 89
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMay 14, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 127 N.W. 104 (Borden v. McNamara) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Borden v. McNamara, 127 N.W. 104, 20 N.D. 225, 1910 N.D. LEXIS 89 (N.D. 1910).

Opinions

Ellsworth, J.

This appeal arises in an action brought in statutory form to determine adverse claim to certain real property situated in the city of Minot. On June 23d, 1890,’ one Peter Funk was thé owner in fee of the property the title tó which is in controversy, and on that date made a mortgage of the same to bank of Minot to secure the payment of a principal note for $1,200 due in five years, with interest at 8 per cent per annum. With this note were given ten interest coupons for $48 each, the first maturing on December 23d, 1890, and the others at intervals of six months thereafter until the maturity of the principal note. '

[228]*228It seems to be undisputed that at some date in the year 1890 the appellant, Mrs. Graves, who was a resident of New Britain, Connecticut, and an acquaintance of E. A. Mears, then president of 'Bank of Minot, sent to Mears for investment the sum of $1,250, and that shortly after the receipt of this money Mr. Mears sent to her the Funk note for $1,200, and the ten interest coupons indorsed without recourse by Bank of Minot. The mortgage securing these notes was sent with them, but no formal assignment in writing of the same seems to have been made. Mrs. Graves received and retained these notes and the mortgage until early in January, 1893, when her husband, who was acting as her agent, detached the first five interest coupons, all of which were then due, and sent them, together with the mortgage, to Mears for collection. These coupons were intrusted for this purpose to Mears personally, and not to Bank of Minot. He did not at once make the collection, however, but placed all the papers for safe keeping in the vault of the Mortgage Bank & Investment Company, an institution kindred to the bank in which he was interested, at Fargo, North Dakota. Both Bank of Minot and Mortgage Bank & Investment Company were at this time in financial difficulties, and on May 23d, 1893, a receiver of the property of both corporations wás appointed, who, in taking possession of their assets in the absence of Mears, among other property seized upon the contents of the vault at Fargo, including the five notes and mortgage belonging to Mrs. Graves. Thereafter the receiver made a sale of these assets at which the five coupon notes were purchased by one B. S. Bryn] olf son, and on February 14th, 1898, by an assignment in writing, the receiver transferred to Brynj olf son such interest as he had in these notes and the mortgage securing them. On March 21st, 1900, Brynjolfson sold and assigned these coupons and his interest in the mortgage to Robert Rowan, Sr. On or about May 8th, 1900, Rowan began an action in the district court of Ward county for the foreclosure of this mortgage. Funk, the mortgagee, was not then living, and his wife was his sole heir. The parties named as defendants to the suit were Molly Funk, Avife of Peter Funk, deceased, Bank of Minot and several others with whose claims we are not now concerned. Mrs. Graves was not named as a party to this action and claims to have had no notice of its pendency.

The Bank of Minot was personally served in this action, — which, [229]*229for convenience, will hereinafter be . referred to as the Rowan suit,— but did not answer. Such service as was made upon Molly Funk was by publication. Appellant claims that the publication failed to comply with statutory requirements in several vital particulars, and that Mrs. Funk was not in fact served in this action. In our view of the controlling features of the case, it will not be necessary, however, to give any special consideration to the irregularities which, it is claimed, rendered this service void and inoperative. None of the defendants made answer in the case, and on August 10th, 1900, a judgment of foreclosure was entered by default in Rowan’s favor, for the satisfaction of the sum then shown to be due upon the five coupon notes and the further sum of $176.35, paid by Rowan as taxes on the property. On this appeal, appellant contends that-this was not entered in the judgment book as required by law, and is therefore a nullity. No action has at any time been taken to secure its vacation on this ground, and it seems to have been treated uniformly by both parties as a valid and existing judgment according to its import. We will therefore so regard it, without expression of opinion as to our view of its status, if properly brought in question by a direct attack. On August 13th, 1900, execution was issued upon this judgment, and on September 22d, 1900, at a sale made thereunder, the property was sold to Rowan for $691.58. This sale was confirmed by the district court on January 28th, 1901.

On September 19, 1901, Mrs. Graves commenced suit in the district court of Ward county, naming as parties defendant Molly Funk, Robert Rowan, W. J. Carroll as sheriff of Ward county, and all others mentioned in the Rowan suit. The complaint in this action, which will be hereinafter referred to as the Graves suit, in substance alleged the giving of the principal and coupon notes by Funk to Bank of Minot and the assignment of all by the bank to Mrs. Graves; that Peter Funk was deceased, and that under the law of succession Molly Funk, his wife, was the owner of the equity of redemption in the premises described in the mortgage; that the defendant Rowan claimed some interest in or lien upon the real property in question under a writing executed by the receiver of the mortgagee, Bank of Minot, purporting to assign to one B. S. Brynjolfson five of the coupon notes attached to the principal note' secured by said mortgage, which interest and lien so acquired said Brynjolfson thereafter pretended to assign to said [230]*230Rowan; that on August 11th, 1900, in a suit brought in the district court of Ward county, wherein said .Rowan was plaintiff, and Molly Funk, Bank of Minot, and others defendants, a decree was entered, which, among other things, directed the sale of the mortgaged real property for the satisfaction of the amount due on said five coupon notes, and that the proceeds of the sale of said premises be paid to the defendant Rowan; that thereafter, on September 12th, 1900, the defendant Carroll, as sheriff of Ward county, acting pursuant to the mandate of an execution issued on said decree, sold the said premises to the defendant Rowan for the sum of $691.58, and executed and delivered to him a sheriff’s-certificate of sale bearing date September 22d, 1900; that at all said times five coupon notes alleged as cause of action in the Rowan suit were the property of the plaintiff, and not of the mortgagee, Bank of Minot, and that neither the unlawful possession of said notes nor the purported assignment by the receiver of the said Bank of Minot to said Brynjolfson and by him to said Rowan, operated to convey to said Rowan any title to said notes or any interest in said mortgage, and that the said decree in his favor for the foreclosure of said mortgage, the ■ execution issued thereon, the sale thereunder, and the sheriff’s certificate issued to said Rowan, did not convey to or vest in him any right, title, or interest to or lien upon the said mortgaged premises. The plaintiff then prayed for a decree in her favor foreclosing the mortgage against said premises for the principal sum due upon the note secured thereby, and the interest thereon from June 23d, 1890, as evidenced by all of said coupon notes.

The defendant Rowan was served personally with the summons and complaint in the Graves suit, and made answer, traversing the allegations, that he was not the owner of the five coupon notes mentioned in his decree of foreclosure and of an interest in the mortgage under the assignment of the receiver of Bank of Minot.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 N.W. 104, 20 N.D. 225, 1910 N.D. LEXIS 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/borden-v-mcnamara-nd-1910.