Clark v. Chapman

184 N.W. 497, 215 Mich. 518, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 788
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 3, 1921
DocketDocket No. 45
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 184 N.W. 497 (Clark v. Chapman) 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
Clark v. Chapman, 184 N.W. 497, 215 Mich. 518, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 788 (Mich. 1921).

Opinion

Steere, C. J.

Plaintiffs bill is filed to foreclose a pledge, consisting of a note secured by mortgage on land in North Dakota and held by him as collateral to [520]*520a note given by defendant to a corporation in Chicago called the United Agency, and by it sold to plaintiff, who is a resident of Zeeland, Ottawa county, Michigan. Defendant resides in the city of Chicago, Illinois.

The bill of complaint introduces the subject with the information that prior to November 13, 1918, defendant Elizabeth Allen Chapman owed the United Agency, a corporation of Chicago, $4,950 which she reduced on that date to $2,549.75, giving a renewal note to the agency for that balance, which with indorsements thereon at the time this bill was filed is as follows:

“$2,549.75. Chicago, Ill., November 13, 1918.
“On or before May 13, 1920, after date, I promise to pay to the order of United Agency, Chicago, Illinois, two thousand and five hundred forty-nine and 75-100 dollars, at Zeeland State Bank, Zeeland, Michigan, value received, with interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum.
“Elizabeth Allen Chapman.
“Due May 13, 1920.
(Rev. Stamps, 50c and 2c.)
(Cancelled 11-13-18. N. A.)
(Indorsed on back.)
6 Mo. int. pd. to 5-13-19. .
“Pay to the order of J. N. Clark.
“Albert LaHuis, trustee for the United Agency.”

While plaintiff’s bill does not connectedly relate events and leaves much to inference, it is inferable that the Albert LaHuis, a resident of Zeeland, who as trustee for the United Agency indorsed this note and assigned its collateral to plaintiff, Clark, was connected in some capacity with the United Agency of Chicago, but just how is left largely to surmise. After setting out the note of November 13, 1918, in full, showing its indorsement to plaintiff by LaHuis, the bill states that on July 19, 1918, defendant to secure her original indebtedness gave LaHuis an assignment of a note and a real estate mortgage on North Dakota lands, dated June 1, 1916, “made and executed by [521]*521Gordon Gardner, mortgagor, to J. J. Murphy, mortgagee,” said mortgage having been properly recorded in Hettinger county, North Dakota, June 29, 1916, and said assignment of it by her to LaHuis on September 29, 1919.

The bill further states that on “June 6 and 7, 1918, and also at a later date” the United Agency turned over to LaHuis notes, mortgages and other securities “as trustee for said bondsmen,” who with him had indorsed notes and signed bonds for the agency, by resolution of its board of directors giving him power to sell the same—

“as he deemed best for the interest of all concerned, and apply the proceeds of the same in the repayment of the loans of the company at the Zeeland State Bank, or to reimburse the said bondsmen for such amounts as they, for any reason, may have advanced or assumed.”

LaHuis sold plaintiff the note indorsed' as shown and assigned to him the collateral North Dakota mortgage as is alleged, “for value, before due and in the ordinary course of business.”

On May 11, 1920, plaintiff sent the note to a bank in Chicago for collection, “at the written request of plaintiff’s duly authorized agent” but the note was not paid when due, or since. Plaintiff then filed this bill in the circuit court of Ottawa county, Michigan, in chancery, asking that a sale of said note and mortgage be authorized, that after a stated time to redeem defendant be forever foreclosed, and if foreclosure sale is made that the proceeds be applied—

“First, to the payment of this proceeding and the expenses of sale; second, to the payment of the amount due from defendant to plaintiff; and third, to repay to the defendant the residue arising therefrom, if any there should be.”

If the proceeds of the sale prove inadequate a de[522]*522cree of personal liability for the deficiency is asked against defendant.

Defendant appeared and answered making a total denial with explanations and allegations, and gave notice of a motion in the nature of a demurrer to dismiss said bill of complaint on various grounds set forth in the answer, which also prays the benefit of a demurrer. The grounds of demurrer are, in substance, that plaintiff has an adequate remedy at law; has not stated a case entitling him to relief in a court of equity; foreclosure of the claimed pledge, or mortgage, held as collateral security is a matter exclusively within the jurisdiction of the North Dakota courts in the county where the land lies and proceedings are now pending there against plaintiff Clark and LaHuis to have set aside and declared void any assignment which they or either of them claim to hold of the North Dakota mortgage and note it was given to secure; the circuit court of Ottawa county, Michigan, in chancery, has no jurisdiction to decree a foreclosure or sale of such a pledge if given; that the mortgage held as collateral security by Clark if under a valid assignment, which is questioned, is as a pledge but a local chose in action relating to real estate which can only be realized upon by sale under foreclosure on the real estate in North Dakota.

The manifest purpose of this bill is, as plaintiff’s counsel state, to “foreclose and sell a pledge” consisting of a “note secured by a mortgage on land in North Dakota” held by plaintiff as security for a note given by defendant to the United Agency and now owned by him. To that end a decree of foreclosure is sought analogous to the foreclosure of a real estate mortgage, giving defendant right to redeem within a specified time, etc., with contingent order of sale and personal decree, or judgment, against her for deficiency. While other incidental grounds of demurrer [523]*523are proposed, the serious and controlling question presented is the jurisdiction of a Michigan chancery court to entertain the case and grant the relief asked, in whole or. in part, where the security for the claimed pledge, consisting of commercial paper, is a mortgage on real estate in a foreign jurisdiction. .

Of this plaintiff’s counsel contend that the bill is not to foreclose a real estate mortgage as such, does not ask “that any land, interest or estate in land be sold,” that “the pledge is a promissory note given by one Gardner to one Murphy, which is secured by a mortgage on land, in North Dakota,” and assert that the scope of the proceeding “is to foreclose a pledge, to authorize a sale of collateral security to satisfy a note payable in Michigan, now held by plaintiff, a resident of Michigan, in a proceeding commenced in the county of plaintiff’s domicile.”

Defendant’s counsel emphasize the fundamental principle of jurisprudence that no State court has jurisdiction to render judgment or decree which will operate extra-territorially so as to affect the title to land in another State, and point out that even in this State bills in equity affecting interests in real estate must be filed in the county where the lands are situated in whole or in part, and a mortgage is an interest in land; and'say that, if not technically for a direct foreclosure, the bill seeks decree for a public sale of.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 N.W. 497, 215 Mich. 518, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-chapman-mich-1921.