Butters v. Butters

117 N.W. 203, 153 Mich. 153, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 1002
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1908
DocketDocket No. 11
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 117 N.W. 203 (Butters v. Butters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Butters v. Butters, 117 N.W. 203, 153 Mich. 153, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 1002 (Mich. 1908).

Opinion

Ostrander, J.

(after stating the facts). As the record before us is understood, the petition (it seems also to have been called a bill) of complainant to set aside the foreclosure sale contained, in substance, the same averments found in the bill now filed. It was answered by Adam Butters. George Butters was made a party and being then, and now, a resident of Canada, an order for his appearance was made and duly published and he appeared and moved to dismiss the petition upon the ground that an original bill should have been filed, since the purchaser at the foreclosure sale was not a party to the foreclosure suit. The order made in that matter, dated October 33, 1905, reads:

“This matter came on to be heard on application to dismiss the petition filed by the defendant, Janet Butters, on the 16th day of July, 1903, to set aside the foreclosure sale under the mortgage referred to in the complainant’s bill of complaint, had on the 13th day of September, 1903, and all the persons interested in said application being present in court and represented by their respective counsel, and the court having heard the arguments of said counsel; ordered that the said petition be and it hereby is, dismissed, without costs. ”

Counsel for Mrs. Butters in that proceeding testified [159]*159in the case at bar that they were convinced that they had mistaken their remedy and supposed an order would be entered so stating. It would appear that the case of Crawford v. Tuller, 35 Mich. 57, was regarded as decisive of the question. It appears, also, that the complainant in the foreclosure suit was beyond the jurisdiction of the court and she had the money paid by the purchaser at the foreclosure sale. See, also, Bending v. Auditor General, 137 Mich. 500; Jewett v. Morris, 41 Mich. 689. It will be noticed that in all of these cases the decree was attacked and sought to be set aside. In the case at bar, the decree is not attacked. A court of chancery has inherent power to set aside sales made by its order whether the property is bid in by a party to the suit or by a stranger. Indeed, the practice requires every sale to be reported to the court and an order confirming it. And if it is sought to vacate a confirming order and to obtain a resale of property, the manner of bringing a grievance to the attention of the court is not of particular importance so long as new rights have not intervened and the original parties to the suit and the purchaser have notice and opportunity to be heard. In the matter of the petition to open this sale, an affidavit of the non-residence of the purchaser was made,.an order for his appearance was made and published, and that he had notice of the proceeding is evident. No more has been done in the pending case. There does not appear- to be any reason to deny the power of the court to determine the matter presented by the petition upon the merits, if complainant was within the jurisdiction of the court. But if she was not, and if that was a ground for refusing relief, it is singular that, having now pursued the method of filing an original bill, the complainant in the foreclosure suit should not be made a party defendant. We shall assume that the matter of the petition to set aside the sale was not determined on the merits and that the plea was properly overruled.

The case affords abundant evidence of the wisdom of [160]*160the rules which require parties to litigation to use the opportunities afforded them to assert their rights, to discover and promptly inform the courts of irregularities. We are not impressed with the testimony introduced to show that when the mortgage foreclosure was begun, complainant had homestead rights in lot 264. She is now asserting rights based upon her deed of the lot. But if she claimed such rights she should have presented the claim in the foreclosure case and this is true, also, of her right, if she had it, to have lot 265 first sold to satisfy the mortgage. Before and during the period of the foreclosure proceeding, complainant and her husband were adversaries. She sought to have allowed to her a portion of this property. Lot 264 was awarded her, subject to a lien of $1,000. Her divorce suit was pending in the same court which had jurisdiction of the foreclosure suit. It does not appear that the judge who allowed her alimony had his attention called to the fact that a sale of the premises occurred two months earlier. The purchaser, a stranger to the foreclosure suit, had bid in the property and paid the mortgage indebtedness. And complainant did not accept the provision made for her by the court. Instead, she accepted a deed from her husband of lot 264 and his covenant to pay the liens thereon. Both her deed and her husband’s separate undertaking recited the fact that George Butters was then the lien holder, and that both lots were subject to these incumbrances. Becoming satisfied later that her husband did not propose to protect her, she set about securing lot 264 discharged from the incumbrances, first by application to George, later by borrowing money to redeem her own lot from the foreclosure sale. It does not appear that she ever intended to redeem lot 264 from the levy.

It is contended that the sale was void. We need not inquire whether Act No. 200, Pub. Acts 1899, requires lands sold under the usual decrees made by courts of chancery to be sold in parcels, making the decisions of this court in Lee v. Mason, 10 Mich. 403; Udell v. Kahn, [161]*16131 Mich. 195, applicable to such sales, because it does not appear that if the sale had been made in a statutory foreclosure proceeding it would have been void. It is true that there are two lots and two houses and a barn, but one house stands upon both lots, and a portion of lot 265 has been otherwise used with lot 264. Undoubtedly the court might have made a subdivision of the property and provided in the decree for a sale of each subdivision. It did not do so and was not asked to do so. Nor was the court in the divorce proceeding asked to make boundaries of the property, although in the decision made the description was not inserted. The agreement, herein set out, made after the sale, indicates the desirability of a single ownership and holding of the property. Counsel for complainant ask in the brief that defendant George Butters be required to deed to complainant lot 264 as occupied, she paying for a portion of lot 265 at a price to be fixed. When the property was sold, both houses were tenanted. The testimony tends to prove that the conditions were discovered on the day of the sale and that in view of them the commissioner sold the property as one parcel.

The deed, by inadvertence, was not recorded within the period of redemption, and it is contended that this fact and the provisions of Act No. 200, Pub. Acts 1899, bring the case within the rule of Doyle v. Howard, 16 Mich. 261. The reasons given in the opinion in that case for holding the provisions of the statute to be mandatory apply, some of them, with equal force in case of a chancery foreclosure. But the principal and controlling reasons do not apply. Foreclosure proceedings by advertisement are confined to cases in which the mortgage contains a power of sale. The proceedings are wholly ex parte and non-judicial. The office of the register of deeds may be the only place where an interested person may learn whether a sale has been made and of the terms thereof. A chancery foreclosure is a judicial proceeding. There is [162]*162other written evidence of the sale than that afforded by the deed.

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Bluebook (online)
117 N.W. 203, 153 Mich. 153, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 1002, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butters-v-butters-mich-1908.