Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. v. Scammon

4 F. 263
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 4 F. 263 (Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. v. Scammon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. v. Scammon, 4 F. 263 (uscirct 1880).

Opinion

Dyer, D. J.

This a bill for foreclosure of a mortgage executed to complainant in 1866 by the defendants J. Y. Scam-mon, Florence A. D. Reed, formerly Scammon, and Arianna [264]*264E. Scammon; the two defendants last named being daughters of the defendant J. T. Scammon. The mortgage originally covered lot No. 5, in block No. 11, in Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago, and was made to secure the payment of $30,000 and interest. It is admitted in the bill that in 1867 the sum of $10,000 was paid to apply on the principal, and it is alleged that the balance of the original principal, namely, $20,000, with interest, remains unpaid, besides certain sums of money paid by complainant to redeem the mortgaged premises from tax sales. Defences have been interposed by the defendants Florence A. D. Reed and Arianna E.- Scam-mon, and the case has been heard upon their exceptions to the report of the master to whom the cause was referred.

Originally, the mortgaged premises were owned in her separate right by Mary Ann II. D. Scammon, then the wife of the defendant J. Y. Scammon, but since deceased. Upon her death, the property by descent passed to her three children, Charles T. Scammon, and the defendants Florence A. D. Reed and Arianna E. Scammon, subject, however, to a life estate therein of their father. Subsequently, but prior to the execution of the mortgage in suit, Mr. Scammon acquired the interest of his son, Charles T. Scammon; so that at the date of the mortgage he was the owner in fee of an undivided one-third interest in the premises. This being the state of the title, on the tenth day of September, 1866, Mr. Scammon and his two daughters joined in the execution of a bond to the complainant, conditioned for the payment of the sum of $30,000 on the tenth day of September, 1871, with interest payable half yearly at 8 per cent.; and to secure the payment of- this bond they executed the mortgage in question. This bond and mortgage were given to secure the repayment to complainant of a loan then made for the purpose of erecting a building on the premises; and the money thus borrowed and secured was so used.

The mortgage contained a clause binding the mortgagors to keep the buildings thereafter erected on the premises insured against loss or damage by fire, and to assign and deliver to complainant the policies of insurance therefor, whenever such [265]*265insurance should be effected; and it was further provided that the complainant should hold such policies of insurance as collateral and additional security for the payment of the principal sum, secured by the mortgage, and interest, and should have the right to collect and receive all sums of money that might at any time become collectible upon such policies of insurance, and apply the same, when received, in the same manner, as far as possible, as was provided in the mortgage in case of a sale of the mortgaged promises under the power of salo therein contained. Pursuant to these requirements of the mortgage insurance was obtained, in the sum of $15,000, upon the building erected on the promises. The policy of insurance, in terms, run to J. Y. Seammon alone, and contained a clause in the usual form: “Loss, if any, payable to the Connecticut Mutual Life Insuranco Company.”

On the tenth day of September, 1867, by agreement between J. Y. Seammon and his daughters, a partition of the mortgaged promises was made by which the south one-third thereof was set off to Mr. Seammon as the parcel in which he should thereafter have a clear estáte in fee; and the north two-thirds were sot oh to the defendants Florence A. D. Reed and Arianna E. Seammon, to be held by them in feo, subject, however, to the life estate of their father. The object of this agreement of partition appears to have befen to enable Seammon to convoy the south one-third of the lot to the Marine Company of Chicago, and to enable his daughters, at liis death, to hold the north two-thirds of the lot free from all other claims of title under Mr. Seammon. Concurrently with tho making of this partition $10,000 was paid to complainant to apply on the principal of the bond and mortgage in suit, and the south one-third of the mortgaged premises so set off to Mr. Seammon was then released by complainant from the lien of the mortgage, and thereafter his interest in the mortgaged premises yet covered by the mortgage consisted of a life estate; and it is understood that the building then situated on the premises stood upon that part of the same set off under the partition to Mr. Scammon’s two daughters. [266]*266This building was totally destroyed in tbe great fire of October, 1871.

In settlement of tbe insurance on tbe same tbe fire insurance company delivered to the defendant Scammon a draft for $15,000, payable to tbe order of complainant; and thereupon Scammon, in a communication addressed to tbe secretary of the complainant, informed him that be bad commenced rebuilding tbe burned structures, and enclosed therein tbe draft received for insurance, and requested that authority might be given to complainant’s Chicago agent to pay over to him (Scammon) or to tbe Marine Company, tbe proceeds of tbe draft, to be expended in such rebuilding. This request resulted in an agreement, made on the fifth day of January, 1872, between complainant and J. T. Scammon alone, by which it was agreed that complainant should and did waive its right to apply tbe insurance money on the mortgage indebtedness, and that this money should be deposited in such bank as should be selected by Scammon and assented to by complainant, to the credit and at the risk of Scammon, to be used in the erection of buildings on the mortgaged premises; that this money should be paid out in the erection of such buildings, from*time to time, on the drafts or checks of Scam-mon, countersigned by complainant’s agent, until it should be thus fully expended; further, that such drafts or checks should be so countersigned on presentation thereof to complainant’s agent, accompanied with the certificate of an architect, that the amount of such check or draft, together with all previous checks or drafts drawn or paid out on such account, had been actually expended in permanent improvements upon the mortgaged premises; further, that so soon as the building or buildings so erected should be in a situation to be insured, Scammon should cause the same to be insured in the fair insurable value thereof, and assign the policies of insurance to complainant, and that thereupon all the provisions contained in the mortgage should apply to such insurance.

By this agreement it was further provided that any receipt or acknowledgment given by complainant, either alone or [267]*267jointly with others, to any such insurance company, for the purpose of facilitating the collection by Scammon of any insurance money intended to be placed back on the mortgaged premises, should not be construed as a collection of the money by complainant under the conditions of the mortgage, wherein it was provided that complainant might collect and apply such insurance money upon the indebtedness secured to be paid thereby, but should be regarded as merely enabling Scammon to collect such insurance money; and it was expressly provided that this money was not to be so applied, and that the mortgage should remain a lien on the premises for the full amount of the principal sum mentioned in the bond, with interest, as if said insurance money had never been collected.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 F. 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/connecticut-mut-life-ins-v-scammon-uscirct-1880.