Cohen v. Ottenheimer

10 P. 20, 13 Or. 220, 1886 Ore. LEXIS 11
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 25, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 10 P. 20 (Cohen v. Ottenheimer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cohen v. Ottenheimer, 10 P. 20, 13 Or. 220, 1886 Ore. LEXIS 11 (Or. 1886).

Opinion

Thayer, J.

The respondents commenced a suit in the court below to foreclose a mortgage executed to them by Charles and Sarah F. Littlefield upon certain lots of land in Baker City, in the county of Baker. The mortgage bears date May 19, 1883, and was given to secure the payment of a promissory note executed by the mortgagors to the mortgagees for the sum of $1,625, hearing even date with the mortgage, and payable 12 months thereafter, with 10 per cent interest. Said Charles Littlefield and Sarah F. Littlefield are husband and wife, and were such when said note and mortgage were executed, and had been for a long time prior thereto. They were made defendants in the suit, and the appellants, Ottenheimer & Heilner, who are partners in business, were joined with them as defendants. The respondents set out in their complaint, after alleging a cause of suit against the makers of the note and mortgage, and that said Ottenheimer & Heilner claimed some interest in the mortgaged premises as judgment creditors subsequent and subject to the respondents’ mortgage, the following : “ And the plaintiffs herein, in order to protect and hold their security upon said mortgaged property, and that the plaintiffs may realize the full amount of their debt out of said property, the plaintiffs demand the relief hereinafter specified, which application is based upon the following facts ; ” and then proceeded to show upon what Ottenheimer & Heilner based their claim; viz.: That on the fifth day of January, 1880, the Little-fields conveyed by deed the said lots to one Shaw, and [222]*222that on the sixth clay of January, 1880, Shaw and his. wife, by deed, conveyed them to Mrs. Littlefield; that, the deeds were in due form and duly recorded, and that as a matter of record the fee-simple title was in Mrs. Littlefield at the time she and her husband executed to the respondents the said note and mortgage ; that on the-first day of September, 1883, said Ottenheimer & Heilner commenced a suit in equity against the Littlefields and’ Shaws, charging that said deeds of the 5th and 6th of January, 1880, were executed to defraud creditors, ánd were void, and demanded that they be so declared as to them, and that said Littlefields be enjoined, from transferring or selling the property, and that a certain patent from the United States to the said Charles Littlefield be-placed upon record, and that the property be subjected’ to their judgment they had obtained for the sum of' $628, and costs, against the said Charles Littlefield on the seventh day of November, 1881, in the said circuit court long prior to the said deeds ; that thereafter the-said circuit court, by its decree, granted the relief claimed, in the said complaint; that the respondents extended credit to Mrs. Littlefield upon the honest belief of her solvency and ability to maintain such credit from the-fact that she was in possession of said property claiming; to be the owner thereof, and the records of the county showing that she was such owner in her own right, and. that they had no knowledge or notice of any fraudulent, conveyance thereof alleged in the said complaint; that they were bona fide mortgagees ■ of the property for said, sum of $1,625, and the interest thereon; that the said' Ottenheimer & Heilner threaten and are about to issue-’ execution upon said judgment, and apply the property upon the same by sale thereof to satisfy said judgment;: that said decree was recovered on or about the fifteenth day of May, 1884, and that it constitutes a cloud upon the-[223]*223title of said property, and greatly depreciates its value as a security to the respondents for the payment of said note ; that the issuance of said execution and levy upon the property will greatly depreciate its value, be a'fraud' upon the respondents’ right under the mortgage, and entail a multiplicity, of suits to remove a cloud on the-title so far as their interests therein are concerned ; that the property is a scanty security for the payment of the mortgage debt, interest, and costs, and said mortgagor is unable to pay the debt; that said Ottenheimer & Heilner are charged by the records with notice of the-mortgagees’ prior right under the mortgage, and their threatened intent to issue the execution is to injure and defraud the respondents; and concluded with a prayer-for a judgment against the mortgagor Mrs. Littlefield, and for the usual decree of foreclosure of the mortgage also for an injunction against Ottenheimer & Heilner,. restraining them from issuing such execution or encumbering the mortgaged property by levy, sale, or possession.

■ I have only attempted to set out the substance of the-extra matter inserted in the complaint in order to obtain the special relief therein prayed, but have shown enough of it to show its character. It is very apparent to-my mind that it is wholly surplusage. It was unfortunate that the respondents’ attorney in draughting the-complaint conceived the idea that it would be necessary to insert such matter in the pleading, and why he did' so I am unable to understand. It could serve no earthly benefit, in any view, and he took upon himself the risk, of occasioning a jumble in the proceedings, and succeeded most admirably. It is not astonishing that such was the result. He lugged into the case an issue wholly unnecessary to the relief sought, and it could not very well fail to create confusion and entanglement. This-[224]*224would have been to a great extent avoided if the appellants’ attorneys had adopted the proper remedy and the circuit court had acted promptly. But one blunder is often the parent of another, as the sequence herein proves. The appellants’ attorney, when he encountered this anomalous complaint, instead of moving the court to strike out the redundant part, filed a demurrer to the whole of it, specifying five distinct grounds, some of them entirely untenable and others farcical.

The first ground was that there was a defect of parties, in that, to wit, the defendants Ottenheimer & Heilner were joined as parties with the Littlefields. The literal import of that must be that there were too few parties because there were too many — a remarkable proposition of. logic. The non-joinder of parties as plaintiff or defendant never meant the misjoinder, and the Tatter is not a cause of demurrer under our Code. When it is shown upon the face of the complaint that the presence of other parties not brought in is necessary to a complete determination of the controversy, a demurrer will lie for a defect of parties plaintiff or defendant, but not • when there are already too many brought in. The only consequence attending the latter case is that a cause of action must be shown in favor of all the plaintiffs and against all the defendants that have been joined as such; otherwise the defendant might demur, but not for a defect or misjoinder — it would be upon the ground that the facts did hot state a cause of action.

The second ground of the demurrer was that the complaint was “multifarious.” I suppose the pleader meant by this that several causes of suit had been improperly united, and why he could not have said so, and have pointed out the several causes of suit so united, is strange. The term “ multifariousness ” has not been used in our Code of Procedure for nearly twenty-five [225]*225years, and for nearly forty years in the state from which the system was taken. There could have been no advantage gained by employing an obsolete term in pleadings. It is much better in such cases to use the words of the Code, although the ancient term, by legal construction, may substantially mean the same thing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
10 P. 20, 13 Or. 220, 1886 Ore. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cohen-v-ottenheimer-or-1886.