Clack v. Clack

41 P.2d 32, 98 Mont. 552, 1935 Mont. LEXIS 12
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 5, 1935
DocketNo. 7,298.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 41 P.2d 32 (Clack v. Clack) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clack v. Clack, 41 P.2d 32, 98 Mont. 552, 1935 Mont. LEXIS 12 (Mo. 1935).

Opinion

Opinion:

PER CURIAM.

The Diamond Bar Ranches Company, a Montana corporation, was the owner of 2,600 acres of land in Blaine and Hill counties. Prior to July 27, 1929, the Capital Trust & Savings Bank, of St. Paul, foreclosed a mortgage describing these lands, which had been given by the Bear Paw Live Stock Company, predecessor of the Diamond Bar Ranches Company. The lands in question were sold on foreclosure sale for the sum of $25,053.50 to Weaver D. Clack on July 27, 1929. A sheriff’s certificate of sale was issued to him in his name, as trustee for the Ranches Company, it being contemplated that it would redeem the property. Thereafter C. F. Morris, the president of the Ranches Company, entered into negotiations with Weaver D. Clack and H. Earl Clack, the latter plaintiff herein, to effect the redemption of the property. In order to redeem *558 it was necessary to raise $21,000. To accomplish that purpose, $8,000 was borrowed from a Malta bank upon the joint note of Weaver D. Clack and Mr. Morris, the former putting up collateral of the value of $8,000. Weaver Clack was then a stockholder and director of the Ranches Company, he having purchased in 1928, together with Mr. Morris, 200 shares of stock of the company from one Mrs. Morris. At about the same time, $12,500 was borrowed from the plaintiff. These funds were secured by the Ranches Company giving to plaintiff a note for $13,000, with an assignment of the sheriff’s certificate of sale. The Ranches Company then received plaintiff’s note for $12,500, which was negotiated at the First National Bank of Great Falls. The difference between the two notes was a bonus to be paid plaintiff for securing the loan. The remainder of the $21,000 necessary to redeem the property was apparently contributed by the Ranches Company.

At the time these negotiations were had it was apparently contemplated that the Ranches Company would obtain a loan of $20,000 from the Federal Land Bank at Spokane, the proceeds thereof to be used to repay the plaintiff his loan, the bonus, and the Malta bank loan. The land bank refused to loan to the Ranches Company, being a corporation, and in order to obtain the loan the company conveyed this real property to Weaver D. Clack by two quitclaim deeds, executed by Mr. Morris as president of the company. Thereafter, in September, 1929, Morris sold his stock in the company to Weaver Clack. Subsequently plain.tiff was required to pay an unpaid balance on his note negotiated by the Ranches Company to the Great Falls bank. The application to the land bank was made for a loan of $20,000, as contemplated, but was approved for only $10,000. The proceeds of this loan were applied on plaintiff’s note in the Great Falls bank. This then left the Ranches Company owing plaintiff a total sum of $2,936.53, consisting of the following items: Balance on principal of the note, $1,224; interest thereon, $137; bonus, $500; taxes paid on the lands, $639.58; and interest paid on the loan to the land bank, $435.95.

*559 On June 2, 1930, Weaver Clack and wife executed a note to plaintiff for $10,000, with interest at eight per cent., payable June 2, 1931, secured by a mortgage executed by the makers of the note, describing a part of the lands theretofore transferred by the Ranches Company to Weaver Clack for the purpose of obtaining the federal loan. The lands were mortgaged as the individual property of Weaver D. Clack. The mortgage was recorded in Blaine county, where most of the lands were situated. It was subsequent to the mortgage to the land bank. Prior to the execution of the latter mortgage, Weaver Clack had made payments on the loan to the Malta bank, reducing that obligation to the sum of $1,600. Plaintiff, upon receipt of the Weaver Clack note and mortgage, assumed the residue of the obligation to the Malta bank and paid it. He, in this connection, asserted that the payments made by Weaver Clack to the Malta bank were accomplished by charging them to the company, which plaintiff in turn took over from the company, and that altogether there was owing to plaintiff on account of the Malta bank loan the sum of $7,543.95, principal and interest.

On February 17, 1931, Alice M. Morris (wife of C. F. Morris) obtained a judgment for $5,174.45 against the Ranches Company and Weaver D. Clack personally, in the district court of Hill county.

Plaintiff on November 19, 1932, commenced this action, the note being in default, to reform the Weaver D. Clack mortgage to include 440 acres of additional land which was conveyed by the Ranches Company to Weaver Clack, alleging that they were omitted from the mortgage, by mistake of the scrivener and by mutual mistake of the parties, and also sought foreclosure of the mortgage as reformed. The Ranches Company and Alice M. Morris, appellant herein, were joined as parties defendant; it being alleged that any interest claimed by them was subsequent and inferior to the lien of plaintiff’s mortgage.

The defendant corporation defaulted, and its default was duly entered. Mrs. Morris answered, denying that Weaver Clack and wife were indebted, on the date of the execution of *560 the mortgage, to plaintiff, and denying that they were the owners and in possession of the lands described in the complaint and mortgage. She also denied all the allegations with reference to the reformation of the mortgage, and asserted that she claimed an interest in the land, and denied that her right was subsequent or inferior to the lien of plaintiff’s mortgage.

Plaintiff alleged that he was entitled to recover the sum of $2,936.53 in connection with the Federal Land Bank loan, and also the sum of $7,543.95, arising out of the Malta bank loan. Appellant denied any rights in the plaintiff to recover upon the latter item.

While the action was instituted and pending in the district court of Blaine county, it was by stipulation of all the parties tried at Havre, in Hill county. When the cause came on for trial on April 29, 1933, plaintiff sought leave to amend his complaint to include in the mortgage an additional 440 acres of land in Hill county, which had not been described in the mortgage or complaint. He alleged that the latter tract had through inadvertence and mistake been omitted from the mortgage, and that it was the intention of all the parties to it that these lands should be described therein. The motion to amend was accompanied by a stipulation between the plaintiff and the defendant Ranches Company, then in default, that the amendment might be made. Over the objection of defendant Alice M. Morris the motion to amend was granted. It was, however, not engrossed in the complaint at the time. The motion to amend and the stipulation were not filed in Blaine county until six days after the decree was entered. In this connection it appears that subsequent to the filing of the transcript on this appeal, a certificate of the district court was here presented wherein it appeared that, when the motion was made, the trial judge took possession of the motion and stipulation and retained them until he decided the case, some eight months later.

The cause was tried before the court sitting without a jury. Findings of fact and conclusions of law in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant Alice M. Morris were made. *561 The requested findings of the latter were refused.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hannah v. Martinson
758 P.2d 276 (Montana Supreme Court, 1988)
In Re Granite Lumber Co.
63 B.R. 466 (D. Montana, 1986)
Keaster v. Bozik
623 P.2d 1376 (Montana Supreme Court, 1981)
Union Interchange, Inc. v. Parker
357 P.2d 339 (Montana Supreme Court, 1960)
Slattery v. Labbitt
181 P.2d 601 (Montana Supreme Court, 1947)
Palmer v. Great Northern Ry. Co.
170 P.2d 768 (Montana Supreme Court, 1946)
Rexburg Lumber Co. v. Purrington
113 P.2d 511 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1941)
Rexburg L. Co. v. Purrington
113 P.2d 511 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 P.2d 32, 98 Mont. 552, 1935 Mont. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clack-v-clack-mont-1935.