Burke v. Dillin

61 N.W. 370, 92 Iowa 557
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 14, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 61 N.W. 370 (Burke v. Dillin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burke v. Dillin, 61 N.W. 370, 92 Iowa 557 (iowa 1894).

Opinion

Kinne, J.

1 [559]*5592 [558]*558I. The facts in this case, as disclosed by the record are as follows: December 1,1885, H. O. Rice owned the land in controversy, and also the northwest quarter of section 28, in township 76, range 41, in Pottawattamie county, Iowa. On that date he executed a mortgage to J. W. Squires, trustee, for five thousand dollars, upon the whole of his land, — four hundred and eighty acres in all. To the mortgage or ‘bond there were attached ten interest coupons, each calling for the payment of one hundred and seventy-five dollars, and due, respectively, on the first days of June and December of éach year. Afterward, Rice became indebted to one Clapp, and executed a mortgage to him upon three hundred and twenty acres of said tract, not including the quarter in section 28. This mortgage was for two thousand, six hundred dollars. Subsequently Rice executed a mortgage to defendant Dillin for one thousand, one hundred and forty-three dollars on the same land covered by the Clapp mortgage. Still later, Rice executed a mortgage to the defendant Witt for five hundred and forty-three dollars on the land included in the Clapp mortgage. December 15, 1888, the claims of Dillin and Witt were past due, and they were proposing to foreclose their mortgages, when, at the instance of Lodge, a member of the firm of Lodge & Henry, above referred to, Dillin and Witt entered into a written contract with Lodge & Henry, the then holders of the second mortgage, and with Rice, the mortgagor, whereby Lodge & Henry, as holders of the second mortgage, [559]*559agreed to keep paid all taxes and interest on the first and second mortgages on said land, and not to allow in any manner, the liens senior to the third mortgage of Dillin and the fourth mortgage held by Witt to grow larger than they then were, in consideration of which Dillin and Witt agreed not to commence foreclosure of their mortgages prior to December 1, 1890. If, however, the taxes were not paid when due, and the interest on said first and second mortgages should become delinquent, then Dillin and Witt might foreclose their mortgages. A few months after this agreement had been entered into, Lodge & Henry proceeded to foreclose the Clapp mortgage, then held by them, and procured a decree of foreclosure thereon in the district court of Pottawattamie county, and sold the half section for three thousand, four hundred and thirty-one dollars and sixteen cents, the full amount of their claim. This sale occurred on June 10, 1889, and the land was purchased by Lodge & Henry. March 10, 1890, Dillin, as a subsequent lienholder, redeemed the half section from the Lodge & Henry sale by paying to the clerk of the court the amount of Lodge & Henry’s bid, with interest at ten per cent thereon. Lodge & Henry received and receipted for this redemption money. Before making this redemption, Dillin procured an abstract of title to the land, and discovered that upon the records of the county, Squires appeared to be the owner, as trustee, of the five thousand dollar mortgage which had been given by Rice to him. Dillin also caused inquiry to be made at Squire’s office as to the condition of the interest payments on said mortgage, and was informed, as some of the evidence shows, that all the interest had been paid up to December 1, 1889. It was only after ascertaining, as he supposed, that the interest on the Squire mortgage had been paid up to December 1,1889, that he, Dillin, determined to make the redemption. [560]*560After effecting the redemption stated, Dillin paid two hundred and forty dollars and ten cents to redeem the land from tax sale. It appears that after the date of the decree in the Lodge & Henry foreclosure suit, and prior to the redemption from the sale by Dillin, the two interest coupons of the five thousand dollar mortgage maturing June 1 and December 1, 1889, of one hundred and seventy-five dollars each, were purchased by Lodge & Henry, and assigned to them by the Rut-land Savings Bank, of Rutland, Vermont, said bank having become the owner of the Squires mortgage. These interest coupons were held by Lodge & Henry at the time Dillin made the redemption heretofore mentioned, and then, after Dillin had effected his redemption, and after March 22, 1890, Dillin claims he first heard and knew these coupons were held by Lodge & Henry, and unpaid.

3 [561]*5614 5 [560]*560At the time of the redemption, the mortgage of five thousand dollars from Rice to Squires, as trustee, stood of record as when it was first executed and recorded, in the name of Squires, as trustee, and no assignment or transfer of it, or of any part thereof, appeared of record. July 8, 1890, the Rutland Savings Bank, being then the owner of the Squires mortgage, commenced proceedings for its foreclosure in the United States court, making Lodge & Henry and'the defendants Dillin and Witt herein defendants in that action. Lodge & Henry appeared in that suit, and filed an answer and cross petition setting up their ownership of these two coupons, and asking a foreclosure of the mortgage as to them against plaintiff, and the defendants herein, Dillin and Witt. Thereafter, and about August 6,1890, Dillin, for Dillin and Witt, paid to Squires, as the representative of the Rutland Savings Bank, five thousand, seven hundred dollars, being the amount claimed by them to be due upon the mortgage, 'and took an assignment of it to [561]*561Witt, who appeared in said United States court and dismissed the foreclosure suit. August 19, 1890, Witt released, on the margin of the record, all the land included in the mortgage, except the quarter section in 28, heretofore mentioned. September 18, 1890, and prior to the dismissal of the foreclosure suit in the United States court, Dillin sold one hundred and sixty acres of the land obtained under his redemption to the defendant Kenealy for five thousand, six hundred dollars. A foreclosure suit was instituted in the district court of Pottawattamie county upon the mortgage, as against the quarter of land in section 28, and a decree entered finding the proper pro rata share of the burden of the debt to be borne by said quarter to be one thousand, six hundred and fifty dollars. Said decree contained no reservations whatever. Neither plaintiff herein nor Lodge & Henry were parties to that suit. Lodge & Henry assigned the two coupons to plaintiff, who brings this suit to foreclose the mortgage as to them. Dillin and Witt deny plaintiffs’ ownership of the coupons; aver that they have been paid, and also rely upon the -written agreement heretofore referred to. They set up the prior foreclosure of the mortgage as to-the land in section 28, and say that the remaining; property described in the mortgage has been released.. They also say that, in making redemption of the land,, Dillin relied upon the representations that these coupons had been paid, and the fact that the record, showed no transfer of them. Defendant Kenealy claims to be a purchaser in good faith, and for value, and without notice of any claim of plaintiff against the land, and that the mortgage was canceled, and no record notice was given of any transfer of the coupons. Plaintiff, in a reply, denies generally all the allegations of the answers, and also alleges that defendants are estopped, by reason of the decree of [562]*562foreclosure in the case of Lodge & Henry v. Dillin, Witt et al.

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Bluebook (online)
61 N.W. 370, 92 Iowa 557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burke-v-dillin-iowa-1894.