Continental Nat. Bank & Trust Co. v. Fullerton

48 F.2d 20, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 4152
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMarch 13, 1931
DocketNo. 8894
StatusPublished

This text of 48 F.2d 20 (Continental Nat. Bank & Trust Co. v. Fullerton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Continental Nat. Bank & Trust Co. v. Fullerton, 48 F.2d 20, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 4152 (8th Cir. 1931).

Opinion

BOOTH, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree which adjudicated priorities between two mortgages as respects a certain derrick boat.

The facts are largely undisputed, and are substantially as follows: In 1923 the Thane Lumber Company was engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber in Arkansas City, Ark. It purchased that year and put into use a steel barge costing about $8,500. In March, 1924, the barge was tied up near the mill, where high water and a storm caused it to sink. When the water subsided, in the summer of 1924, the barge became visible, and it was bailed out and caused to float in December of that year. It was then used as a material barge and work barge. It was also used as a crib in connection with an inclined track from the river to the mill. In the summer or fall of 1925, the barge was cut in two; one-half of it was sold for $1,500, and the other half was converted into a derrick boat. [21]*21The work of so converting it was done during the period commencing in the fall of 1925 or the winter of 1925-1926 and ending in the summer of 1927. The cost of reconstruction was seventeen or eighteen thousand dollars.

November 1, 1924, the Thane Company executed a mortgage to the Continental National Bank & Trust Company and another, as trustees, to secure a series of. bonds amounting to $630,000. ' The mortgage was recorded January 10,1925. It covered lands, railroads, mill site, lumber and river equipment, fallen trees, and logs; and, among other property, “also all boats, barges and river equipment of every kind now or hereafter used or acquired for use by the Mortgagor in connection with its operations on the mortgaged property.” The mortgage also contained the following clause:

_ ... _ a “It will at its own expense do all things the Trustees or Bankers may deem necessary to keep this Instrument a first lien on any and all of the mortgaged property and will promptly and duly execute and deliver to the Trustees any instruments which the Trustees or Bankers deem advisable for better carrying out the true intent hereof. It will not create or attempt or suffer to be created any lien or charge whatsoever on the mortgaged property or on any part thereof prior to or of equal rank with the lien hereof, or whereby the lien or security hereof might be impaired.’

February 25, 1926, the Thane Company, as first Party, made a contract with S. H. Fullerton, C. W. Reighard, and Bradley Investment Company, as second parties, by which the Thane Company agreed to buy from the second parties certain stock of the Thane Company owned by them. Payment was to be made by promissory notes executed by the Thane Company. It was further agreed that the second parties should have an equitable mortgage on all lumber manufaet-ured by the first party to secure said notes; said mortgage, however, to be subject to a mortgage held by the Chicago Lumber & Coal Company on said lumber as manufactured by said first party.

The Chicago Lumber & Coal Company was the sales company of the Thane Lumber Company. By the contract between them, prior to February 25,1926, the Chicago Lumber Company agreed to advance $20 per thousand feet on all hardwood and cypress lumber No. 2, common or better, manufactured by the Thane Lumber Company, and take a mortgage thereon. j

Subsequent to the making of the contract of February 25, 1926, the Thane Lumber Company agreed with the Bradley Investment Company that the Chicago Lumber *& Coal Company should take out of the proceeds coming to the Thane Lumber Company from lumber sold $4 per thousand feet, and pay it to the Bradley Investment Company to applied on the indebtedness owing by the Thane Lumber Company to the Bradley Investment Company. This arrangement was carried out.

' On October 25,1927, the Thane Company executed a mortgage to the Bradley Investment Company (later assigned to appellee Fullerton), covering real and personal property, including the following:

„ ., „ , , . “A1f a11 boats’ bar^es and laver ment of, «Y®* kmd or befafter ^ed or acquired for use by the mortgagor m conneetion ^ its operation on the mortgaged Br0I)erfV ^
“And special mention and reference is made to toe * * * Derrick boat ‘Chestor.
“ * * * All lumber that the grantee may manufacture or have on its yards at its mill plant in Arkansas City which yard is known as Thane Lumber Company Lumber yard, but subject, however, to the advances made by the Chicago Lumber & Coal Company. * * * ”

The derrick boat Chester was the reconstructed boat here in controversy.

This mortgage also contained the follow- ■ e]ause. '

„ . . . * This mortgage is executed sub-3eot to tbe terals and conditions of the mortentered f*0 b®twe.en toe Thane Lumber Company and the Continental & Commercial Timst & Savings Bank, and Calvin Fentress) wbieb mortgage is dated November 1st, 1924, and filed for record m the circuit clerk’s office 111 Desha County.

Default having occurred in the. Bradley Investment Company mortgage, suit in equity was commenced to foreclose the same, The Continental National Bank & Trust Company et ah, as trustees under the mortSaSB of November 1, 1924, were made parties. They answered, and by cross-bill set up the mortgage of November 1, 1924, default thereunder, and prayed for appropriate retim-

November 23, 1928, the court entered a decree under the cross-bill, foreclosing the mortgage of November 1, 1924, and ordering a sale of the property covered by said mort[22]*22gage, except the steel derrick boat here in controversy. As to said boat, the court said:

“ * * * That a certain steel derrick boat completed in the year 1927 now in possession of Thane Lumber Company be not sold and the priority of right to such boat of the aforenamed counterelaimants be hereinafter determined. * * * ” •

The sale as to the other property was duly confirmed

June 29, 1929, the court entered a decree in the Fullerton suit, foreclosing the mortnn , , oe .«ofv? j f ■ i gage of October 25,1927, and ordering-a sale 6«bM i , -a i. of the property covered by said mortgage. t f ♦ a xl ji n The decree contained the following:

UTri, ,. „ . ., r. v , ‘‘The question of priority of lien as to the derrick boat ‘Chester* as between the plaintiff ci tt TTi n «. j , v , i . . S. H. Fullerton and the countercomplainant, n t> i pm . n i • Continental Bank & Trust Company, having , ,, . , , . j i ' been this day heard and taken under advise- , . j? • i . • ,, ment is reserved for further consideration.”

The sale as to the other property was duly confirmed.

January 21, 1929, the Continental National Bank & Trust Company et al. filed a petition for a sale of the derrick boat.

February 19, 1930, a decree was entered containing the following:

“ * * * The court, after argument of counsel, being well and sufficiently advised, finds that the Continental Bank & Trust Company of Chicago, and Wm. P. Kopf, Trustees, are entitled to a first lien for $1500 on the derrick boat ‘Chester’, and that S. H. Fullerton is entitled to any balance arising from its sale, said amounts to be credited on the decrees in favor of said parties respeetively.”

A sale of the derrick boat and distribution of the proceeds were ordered.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 F.2d 20, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 4152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/continental-nat-bank-trust-co-v-fullerton-ca8-1931.