Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. v. Hunter

145 S.W.2d 1009, 235 Mo. App. 909, 1940 Mo. App. LEXIS 97
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 14, 1940
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 145 S.W.2d 1009 (Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. v. Hunter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. v. Hunter, 145 S.W.2d 1009, 235 Mo. App. 909, 1940 Mo. App. LEXIS 97 (Mo. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

*915 TATLOW, P. J.

I. Appellant was the plaintiff below, and respondent was the defendant; the parties will be referred to in this opinion as plaintiff and defendant.

The plaintiff instituted this suit in replevin to recover possession of a 12 x 18 Kluge automatic printing press, and also a 10 x 15 Kluge automatic printing press, which it had sold to the defendant and for which the defendant had executed promissory notes and secured same by chattel mortgage. The petition prayed for a judgment against the defendant only for possession of the printing presses. Defendant admitted the execution of the promissory notes and the payments thereon as alleged in plaintiff’s petition, and, in addition thereto, set up a counterclaim based upon the violation of the warranty contained in the contract of sale, in which he prayed judgment for damages in the amount of $5000; that he be entitled to retain possession of the presses; and that he be given judgment for the damages sustained over and above the face value of the notes. The plaintiff filed an answer to the counterclaim, and the defendant filed a reply to the answer. The pleadings will be referred to hereafter more in detail with reference to the several issues in the case.

*916 We will first consider tlie plaintiff’s contention with reference to its cause of action in replevin.

Laying aside the counterclaim, the mortgage was not fully paid when the suit was filed; a substantial sum remained due and unpaid, which constituted a default in the mortgage and entitled plaintiff to possession of the property on account of such default.. At the close of all the evidence in the case the plaintiff requested the court to instruct the jury that its verdict must be in favor of the plaintiff upon plaintiff’s cause of action for the possession of the personal property sued for, which the- court refused to do, and to which the plaintiff duty excepted. This instruction is based upon the theory that it stood admitted by the defendant that without considering its counterclaim there was a substantial sum due on the mortgage, which made a prima facie ease for the plaintiff and entitled the plaintiff to a verdict •for the possession of the mortgaged property; in other words, that the vital issue in the case was as to the right of possession of-the chattels, and that the value of the property and the amount of the debt-were immaterial. Plaintiff further contended- that it was necessary to have two separate verdicts, one in its favor for the possession of the property, and a separate verdict for the defendant for such damages, if any, thát defendant had suffered by reason of the breach of the warranty; that the verdict of the jury was not responsive to the pleadings.

The verdict, which was in accordance with the instructions of the court as to its form, is as follows:

“We the jury find the issues in favor of the defendant upon plaintiff’s cause of action.

“And we do further find the issues for the defendant upon his counterclaim and assess defendant’s damages thereunder at the sum of $1200. Defendant to have charge of both printing presses.

“(Signed) Robert E. Frazer, Foreman.”

The plaintiff further contends that the jury should not have been authorized to set off the amount of the damages that it might find the defendant had suffered against the amount due on the notes, and, if such damages exceeded the amount due on the notes, to render its verdict in favor of the defendant for the difference.

, With reference to this contention the plaintiff says: “. . - . We did not dispute the proposition that the Court could then have ‘offset’ the verdicts — by providing that we could not have possession under our replevin action without first paying defendant the amount of his judgment under his counterclaim.”

In support of this position counsel for the plaintiff has made a-somewhat attenuated and involved argument with only an obiter dictum of the Kansas City Court of Appeals, in the case of Drennon v. Dalin court, 56 Mo. App. 128, to, support the argument. Where both a general and special property interest is involved in an action of *917 replevin, as in the instant case, the law has been clearly settled to the contrary by onr Supreme Court from a very early date. It is said in the case of Kennett v. Plummer, 28 Mo. 142, 1. c. 145: ‘ ‘ The modern doctrine is well established that a mortgage is but a security for the payment of the debt or the discharge of the engagement for which it was originally given, and until the mortgagee enters for breach of the condition, and in many respects until final foreclosure of the mortgage, the mortgagor continues the owner of the estate . . .”

After condition broken, if the mortgage is on real estate the mortgagee can maintain ejectment. If it is on personal property he can maintain replevin; but the fact still remains that in neither case is the mortgagee the absolute owner of the property. He has only a lien thereon. The mortgagor is still the general owner of the property and the mortgagee has only a special interest therein. In the case of Dilworth v. McKelvy, 30 Mo. 149, 1. c. 154, the court laid down the rule as follows: ‘ ‘ The present is the case of a lien for a sum of money due from the plaintiff to the defendant. When the money is paid the lien ceases, and the defendant has no longer any right to the possession of the property. The judgment should be for the value of the defendant’s interest, or for a return of the property until that value is paid, at the option of the defendant. Of course, if the plaintiff chooses to pay the amount of the lien, the defendant has no alternative but to receive it, and his right to the possession of the property ceases. But the plaintiff may not see proper to tender the money, in which event a judgment in the alternative, to be determined at the defendant’s option, will give the defendant the advantage of selecting between an execution to enforce a moneyed judgment and the possession of the property until his claim is paid.”

In that case it is further said: . . Here, the defendant only claimed a lien on the lumber sued for to an amount less than a fourth of its value, and he gets a judgment for four times the sum he claims, or for the return of the property, with the privilege of electing which of these judgments he will enforce. . . .” (1. c. 153.)

A somewhat similar condition exists in the instant case. The plaintiff’s petition alleges that, at the time the suit was filed, the value of the property was $2000, and the amount of the debt was $1709.95. The defendant had paid on the mortgage a total of $1680. Under the plaintiff’s theory, where the defendant did not seek to rescind the contract but only sought to recover damages for a breach of the warranty, the correct measure of defendant’s damages is the. difference between the value of the property at the time of the sale and what would have been its value if it had been as warranted; and we think that this is the correct measure of the damages. If so, it is apparent that it would be an injustice to the defendant to permit the plaintiff to recover possession of the property by first paying the amount of the damages thus ascertained, and permit the plaintiff to *918

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Bluebook (online)
145 S.W.2d 1009, 235 Mo. App. 909, 1940 Mo. App. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brandtjen-kluge-inc-v-hunter-moctapp-1940.