Clark v. Butts

76 N.W. 199, 73 Minn. 361, 1898 Minn. LEXIS 819
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJuly 15, 1898
DocketNos. 11,179-(250)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 76 N.W. 199 (Clark v. Butts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Butts, 76 N.W. 199, 73 Minn. 361, 1898 Minn. LEXIS 819 (Mich. 1898).

Opinion

CANTY, J.

On May 8, 1890, one Waterman and one George were the owners of a certain outlot in the city of St. Paul. On that day they mortgaged it to plaintiff to secure the payment to him of the sum of $3,500. Thereafter the interest of Waterman was transferred to his wife, Elizabeth J. Waterman, through mesne conveyance. Thereafter, default having been made in the payment of an instalment of interest due on the mortgage indebtedness, plaintiff duly commenced proceedings to foreclose the mortgage under the power of sale therein contained, and pursuant thereto the lot was sold on April 19, 1892, at the foreclosure sale, to one Wilmot, for the sum of $232.15, the same being the amount of such instalment of interest and the costs of the foreclosure proceedings. The year to redeem expired, and no redemption was made by the owner. On April 19, 1893, the last day of the year, the defendants Butts & Jaques filed a notice of intention to redeem as judgment creditors under a judgment in their favor against Mrs. Waterman, claimed to have been docketed in the district court of Ramsey county on September 30, 1892, for the sum of $214. On April 21, 1893, Butts & Jaques paid to the sheriff the amount necessary to redeem as such creditors from the foreclosure sale, and received from him a certificate of redemption. On the next day Wilmot received from the sheriff the redemption money so paid to him by Butts & Jaques.

Plaintiff claims that the alleged judgment of Butts & Jaques, and the alleged redemption under it, are both fraudulent and void for various reasons, and that before Wilmot received the redemption [364]*364money from the sheriff he assigned the sheriff’s certificate of foreclosure sale to one Wheeler, who thereafter assigned it to plaintiff.

This is an action to determine adverse claims. On the trial the court below found for plaintiff. An appeal from an order denying a new trial is taken by the defendant Browning, who claims under Butts & Jaques.

The trial court found that Wilmot did not receive the redemption money from the sheriff until after he (Wilmot) had executed and delivered to Wheeler the assignment of the sheriff’s certificate of foreclosure sale. Appellant contends that this finding is not supported by the evidence, but that, on the contrary, it conclusively appears from the evidence that Wilmot accepted the redemption money before he delivered the assignment to Wheeler.

In our opinion the point is well taken. Wheeler & Howell, real-estate agents, were acting for plaintiff in an attempt to procure for him the rights obtained by Wilmot under the foreclosure sale. A form of assignment of the sheriff’s certificate from Wilmot to Wheeler was drawn up by Howell, and he and Wilmot met at the office of the attorney of the latter on April 22,1893. Wilmot signed the assignment, and acknowledged it before his attorney, who was' a notary public. He left the assignment in the hands of his attorney, and went away to ascertain the amount to be paid by Wheeler for the assignment; it being orally agreed that Wheeler should pay the amount bid at the sale, and interest for this and- another assignment, and also ijpoO “bonus,” and Howell, acting for Wheeler, was then and there ready to pay the amounts. Instead of returning, Wilmot, on the same day, went to the sheriff’s office, and drew out the redemption money paid in by Butts & Jaques. Wheeler did not pay anything for the assignment, and the assignment was not delivered until after Wilmot had drawn out the redemption money. This is conclusively established by the evidence. By a subsequent arrangement made between Wheeler and Wilmot, the money was returned to the sheriff on May 1, 1893, and on that day, or a day or two before, the assignment of the sheriff’s certificate of this lot was delivered to Howell for Wheeler.

The attempted purchase of the sheriff’s certificate was a cash transaction. It is clear that the parties did not intend that the as[365]*365signment should be delivered, or that any title to the certificate or the lot should pass to Wheeler, until the consideration for the assignment had been paid. At the time Wilmot received the redemption money he was the owner of the sheriff’s certificate and of the lot, subject to redemption by creditors, and neither plaintiff nor Wheeler had any enforceable interest, either legal or equitable, in either the lot or the certificate. The negotiations for the purchase of the certificate did not prevent Wilmot’s acts, in taking the redemption money, from having full effect as a waiver of the defects in the redemption of Butts & Jaques.

Let us now consider the alleged defects in the judgment and redemption. Butts & Jaques held the note of Mr. Waterman, dated September 21,1891, and due in one year thereafter. On September 12, 1892, they procured from the Watermans a deed of this property with the name of the grantee in blank. In consideration thereof, Butts & Jaques agreed to pay the Watermans $400, — $196 in cash, and the balance by surrendering the note, which was not yet due. As a part of the same transaction, it was agreed that Butts & Jaques might commence an action against Mrs. Waterman, and take judgment against her for the amount of the note. The cash was paid, and the note surrendered and canceled. On September 20, 1892, Butts & Jaques drew up a complaint against her in an action in the municipal court of St. Paul, procured her to admit service of the summons, and to put in an answer which they had prepared for her, and to sign a stipulation for judgment in their favor. They then proceeded to enter judgment in the municipal court, and to take a transcript of such judgment to the district court in the manner hereinafter stated. On this state of facts the trial court was not warranted in finding, as it did, that the Water-mans conveyed the land to Butts & Jaques. The deed executed in blank did not have that effect, or any effect. Allen v. Allen, 48 Minn. 462, 51 N. W. 473.

Neither was the court warranted in finding, as it did, that, by reason of said facts, Butts & Jaques had ceased to be creditors of Mrs. Waterman, and that the action so brought against her was wholly without foundation. Whether the blank deed would form a sufficient consideration, either nominal or otherwise, for the surrender [366]*366and cancellation of the note, we need not consider. Such deed was not the only consideration. A part of the consideration was that Butts & Jaques should be allowed to bring the very action they brought and to obtain judgment therein. Then the note was only surrendered and cancelled in form. It in fact remained in force so far that it was to be the foundation of an action and a judgment against Mrs. Waterman for the amount of it.

The court further found that a judgment roll was made up in the municipal court in that action, consisting of the pleadings, stipulation for judgment, an order of that court for judgment on the stipulation and a copy, of the proposed judgment; that on the same day a certified copy of said proposed copy of the judgment was filed and docketed in the district court of Ramsey county as a transcript of the judgment in that action; that some time afterwards a judgment was entered in that action in the judgment book in the municipal court, but that no such judgment was entered in the judgment book before the transcript was filed in the district court.

On the authority of Rockwood v. Davenport, 37 Minn. 533, 35 N. W. 377, and Maurin v. Carnes, 71 Minn. 308, 74 N. W.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 N.W. 199, 73 Minn. 361, 1898 Minn. LEXIS 819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-butts-minn-1898.