Commercial Bank v. Jackson

63 N.W. 548, 7 S.D. 135, 1895 S.D. LEXIS 46
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMay 25, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 63 N.W. 548 (Commercial Bank v. Jackson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commercial Bank v. Jackson, 63 N.W. 548, 7 S.D. 135, 1895 S.D. LEXIS 46 (S.D. 1895).

Opinion

Corson, P. J.

This was an action to foreclose a mortgage for something over 112,000, principal and interest. Judgment for plaintiff, and the defendant Lydia E. Jackson appeals. The principal question involved is as to the ownership of two of the notes and the mortgage in controversy. The transactions resulting in the giving of the notes and mortgage are somewhat complicated, [137]*137but may be briefly stated as follows: The plaintiff bank was engaged in the business of banking in Union City, state of Indiana, and one James F. Bubey was its cashier. The defendant Lydia E. Jackson and her husband were also residents of Union City, in that state. In January, 1890, Joseph B. Jackson, the husband of Lydia E. Jackson, being indebted to said plaintiff bank in about the sum of $7,000, Mrs. Jackson, who was the owner in her own right of 160 acres of land in Minnehaha county, near the city of Sioux Falls, executed a warranty deed, in which her husband joined, of the said' Dakota property to the said James F. Bubey, the cashier of the plaintiff bank. And thereupon the said Bubey delivered to Mrs. Jackson a declaration of trust, the material parts of which are as follows: “January 22, 1890. I have received from Lydia E. Jackson and Joseph B. Jackson a deed for 160 acres (more or less) of land in Minnehaha county, South Dakota, * * * which land I hold in trust as security for the payment of said Jackson’s indebtedness to the Commercial Bank of Union City, as evidenced by notes, now held by said bank. * ‘ * * In case the foregoing condition of this trust is not complied with, then I am to reconvey said land to said .Lydia E. Jackson, in case there shall be paid to. me on or before April 15, 1890, the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars. Any sum of money that may come into my hands as trustee herein is to be paid by me to the Commercial Bank of Union City, to be applied,” etc. This deed and declaration of trust were executed and delivered in said Union City, state of Indiana. On December 31, 1890, the said defendant Lydia. E Jackson and her husband executed a second warranty deed to Bu-bey for the same property, in the city of Chicago, state of Illinois, to enable him to give a good title to the" property. About this time Mrs. Jackson, through one Wright, a real-estate agent of Chicago, made a sale of the property to one Meredith, and Bubey executed a deed, therefor. On this sale Meredith paid $6,000 in cash, and executed four notes, — two for $3,000 each, and two for $2,000 each, — and secured the same by a mortgage upon the property. These notes and mortgages were all made payable to said [138]*138J ames F. Rubey, and the ownership of the two $3,000 notes is one of the subjects of controversy in this appeal, Mrs. Jackson having been found to be the owner of the two $2,000 notes. Upon the sale of the property the said Rubey paid to the plaintiff bank $5,000 of the cash paid by Meredith ($1,000 having been paid as commission to the agent, Wright), and the bank applied it upon the indebtedness of said appellant and Joseph R. Jackson, her husband. Said Rubey also transferred to said bank the two $3,000 notes absolutely, in payment of the indebtedness of Jackson and the indebtedness of Mrs. Jackson, and also transferred to the bank, the two $2,000 notes as collateral security. In the spring of 1891, said Rubey gave to Mrs. Jackson a statement of the accounts, in which he credits her with the $5,000 cash, and $6,000 in the two notes, and a small amount of interest, and charged her with $7,500 paid to the bank on said Joseph R. Jackson’s indebtedness, and the amount for which Mrs. Jackson was individually indebted to the bank, making a total of $10,474.49, and leaving a balance due her of $555.51, which he paid to her by check, which she collected and retained. In the fall of 1892 the bank commenced this action to foreclose the Meredith Mortgage, and Mrs. Jackson was made a party. She, in her answer, set up, in substance, the facts above stated, and also alleged: That said transfer of said notes and mortgage to the plaintiff bank was made in the state of Indiana, and was subject to the laws of said state. That section 5119 of the Revised Statutes of Indiana, enacted in the year 1881 (section 6964, Rev. St. 1894), and still in force, provides as follows: ■ ‘A married woman shall not enter into any contract of suretyship either as endorser, guarantor, or in any other manner, and such contract as to her shall be void.’ That by virtue of said statute said transfer of the notes and mortgage to the plaintiff bank as aforesaid is absolutely void, as to her, and that she is still the owner of said notes and mortgage, and entitled to the proceeds thereof.” Demand of Judgment was for the amount due upon said notes, and a sale of the property, and the payment of the proceeds to her, in the. usual form.

[139]*139The case was referred' to a referee, who found that Mrs. J acksan was entitled to the two $2,000 notes, but in favor of the plaintiff on the two $3,000 notes; and the report pf the referee was confirmed by the circuit court, and a judgment rendered thereon in favor of the plaintiff. The referee found that the deed and declaration of -trust constituted under the laws of this state -a mortgage. Only two other findings need be given upon-this question, as he found the facts substantially as above stated. These findings are as follows: “(22) That on the 31st day of December, 1890, the defendant Lydia B. Jackson and her husband, Joseph B. Jackson, executed and delivered to James E. Bubey the following warranty deed: * * * ■ Said deed was, at Chicago, in the state of Illinois, on the 31st day of December, 1890, duly signed and acknowledged by the said Lydia B. Jackson and Joseph B. Jackson, and was afterwards, on the 22d day of December, 1892, duly recorded. (23) That the execution and delivery of said deed was for the purpose of enabling said James E. Bubey to give a good title to the land therein described to the-defendant E. B. Meredith, and did not change the original legal relations of Lydia E. Jackson and James E. Bubey.”

■ The learned counsel for the defendant contends, first, that conceding that the original- transaction between Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Bubey constituted a valid mortgage, interpreted by the laws of this state, and that the conveyance to Meredith, and his mortgage, Were valid under the laws of this "state, so far as they affect the real property of Mrs. Jackson, still these facts do not affect the question here involved, namely, the ownership of the notes and mortgage in controversy in this action, as the right to these must be determined by the law of Indiana, where the -parties were domiciled, and the contract of suretyship was made. In other words, while the title to the land depends-upon the law of this state, the ownership of the notes and mortgage depends upon the law of the state of Indiana. The learned counsel for the respondent insist that, this being a contract for the conveyance of real property situated in this state, it must be governed entirely by the law of this [140]*140state, and that our courts will not investigate or determine the legality of the transaction, as between Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Rubey and the bank, under the laws of Indiana. They also insist that as the notes in controversy were absolutely transferred to the bank in payment of Mrs. Jackson’s indebtedness, and an account rendered to Jackson, to which she made no objection, she cannot, in this action, be heard to claim the notes. They also insist that if the original contract was void under the laws of Indiana, and Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
63 N.W. 548, 7 S.D. 135, 1895 S.D. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commercial-bank-v-jackson-sd-1895.