Brown v. Follette

58 N.E. 197, 155 Ind. 316, 1900 Ind. LEXIS 137
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 9, 1900
DocketNo. 18,804
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 58 N.E. 197 (Brown v. Follette) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Follette, 58 N.E. 197, 155 Ind. 316, 1900 Ind. LEXIS 137 (Ind. 1900).

Opinion

Hadley, J.

— Snit by appellee for an accounting and to have certain deeds declared a mortgage.

The errors assigned all rest on the third paragraph of the complaint. The substantive facts alleged in this paragraph follow: The appellee, being the owner of 1,300 acres of described land in Lake county, sold and conveyed it to one Krech for $242,000. Krech paid a part of the purchase price, assumed to pay certain mortgages placed thereon by appellee and held by the Eirst National Bank of Crown Point, and executed his notes and mortgage back to appellee for the residue. Afterward appellee borrowed more money from the bank, and secured it by assigning to the [318]*318bank certain of the Krech notes. Krech. made default in payment to the bank and to appellee, and the bank thereupon, by John Brown, its president, and in his name, but for the use of the bank, began and prosecuted, to final judgment and decree, foreclosure proceedings for the collection of all its claims against the land. In the same action appellee filed her cross-complaint for foreclosure against Krech, and obtained a judgment and decree thereon for more than $100,000 unpaid purchase money. Upon a certified copy of the decree the bank caused the whole of the lands to be sold by the sheriff, and John Brown, in his own name, but for the use of the bank, bought the same in for $37,566. After the purchase the bank paid the taxes, and bought a first and unforeclosed mortgage indebtedness of one All-man, so that on the 27th day of January, 1895, the date of expiration of the year for redemption, the bank’s total claim against the land amounted to $48,000, less the amount of rents received by the bank. Prior to the expiration of the year for redemption, the bank agreed with the appellee that if she would pay $12,000 of its claim, and secure the balance, it would extend the time of redemption for one year, or to January 27, 1896, and if the bank received a deed of conveyance from the sheriff upon the sale, at the expiration of the year, to wit, January 27, 1895, upon performance by appellee of her promise within the following year, the bank would cause the land to be conveyed to her. The bank did receive the sheriff’s deed in the name of John Brown. The lands are worth $250,000. On the-day of .March, 1895, while appellee’s agreement with the bank was still in force, appellee entered into a contract with the appellant Harry Spencer Brown to the effect that, as a loan to appellee, the appellant Brown, in consideration of a bonus or usurious interest of $10,000, was to perform appellee’s contract with the bank, and take and hold the title to the land in his own name, as security for the money required in discharging the bank’s claim, principal and inter[319]*319est, and said $10,000 bonus, appellee to have possession and rents and profits of tbe land. Pursuant to tbis contract, appellant Brown paid tbe bank $12,000 in casb, and executed, to tbe acceptance of tbe bank, bis notes for tbe residue of its claim; whereupon tbe bank, upon request of tbe appellee, caused its president, John Brown, to convey tbe land to appellant Harry Spencer Brown by a deed of special warranty, and at tbe same time, upon request of appellant, and as a part of the contract, appellee also executed to tbe appellant Brown her quitclaim deed to tbe land. After receiving tbe deeds, tbe appellant, contrary to bis agreement, took possession of tbe land, and has collected all of tbe rents accruing since March, 1895, and has failed and refused to account to appellee for tbe same and claims that tbe deeds so executed to him by tbe bank and appellee were valid and absolute conveyances, and not a mortgage, and that be is thereby tbe absolute owner of tbe land in fee.

As against tbe other appellants, it is alleged as to'Tbakaberry that be claims some interest in tbe land, but, if be has any, it is subject to tbe rights of appellee; and as to Adelaide Brown, that slie is tbe wife of Harry Spencer Brown, and has no interest in tbe land "except such as may spring from her marital relation. Harry Spencer Brown has bad possession of and collected tbe rents of tbe lands for three years, and such rents amount to tbe sum of $2,500 per annum. Prayer for an accounting, and that tbe deeds from tbe bank and appellee to appellant Harry Spencer Brown be adjudged a mortgage for tbe security of tbe amount due tbe appellant Brown, and that appellee be declared tbe owner of said lands subject to said mortgage, etc.

Tbe errors assigned call in question tbe sufficiency of tbe above facts to constitute a cause of action against either of tbe appellants. Ho reason is suggested by counsel why tbe complaint is not sufficient as against Thakaberry, but eight reasons are urged on behalf of Harry Spencer Brown and Adelaide Brown why tbe complaint is not good as to them: [320]*320(1) Because it nowhere appears that Harry Spencer Brown had notice of appellee’s contract with the bank at the time he accepted the deeds and paid the money for appellee ; (2) because it is not averred that appellee performed all the conditions of her contract with the bank; (3) because the complaint shows that Krech was the owner of the lands, and that appellee had no mortgageable interest therein; (4) the facts pleaded tend to establish an express trust in appellant Brown, which can not be created by parole evidence, in violation of §3391 Burns 1894; (5) because .of the absence of an averment that appellee relied and acted upon the promise of the bank to extend the time of redemption; (6) appellee, being one of the judgment creditors in the decree upon which the land was sold by the sheriff, had no right of redemption; (7) it was not averred that the sale to John Brown was upon the bank’s foreclosure; (8) it contains no offer to pay what may be found due upon an accounting.

We do not perceive the pertinency of these objections — ■ except fhe fourth and eighth — to the question before us. Neither the First National Bank of Crown Point nor any of its officers are parties to this action. No complaint is lodged against either. This complaint proceeds upon the theory that the appellant Harry Spencer Brown has violated his contract with the appellee, to her injury. It is charged therein that the appellant Brown loaned appellee $48,000 with which to discharge certain indebtedness to the bank, upon an agreement that appellee should cause the 1,300 acres of land to be conveyed to him by deeds absolute upon their face, but which were to be accepted and held by him only as a security for the repayment of the loan. Appellant’s demurrer admits these averments to be true, and further admits that, in violation of his said agreement, he now claims that said deeds were not a security, but absolute conveyances, and that he is, in virtue thereof, the absolute owner in fee of the lands. Thus situated, appellant has no right to excuse his wrong upon the ground that he had [321]*321no previous notice of the terms of the contract by which appellee had procured from a third person the security she had promised and had given him for the loan; and quite as little right to question whether appellee had or had not kept her contract with such third person; or as to who had been the previous owner, and what appellee’s previous interest in the property had been; or whether she had or had not relied and acted upon the bank’s promise to extend the time for redemption ; or whether appellee had or had not the right of redemption from the bank. Whatever may have been the character of the dealings between the appellee and the bank is of no concern to appellant. According to the complaint, the security he received was what he contracted for.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 N.E. 197, 155 Ind. 316, 1900 Ind. LEXIS 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-follette-ind-1900.