Cooper v. Home Owners' Loan Corp.

126 S.W.2d 112, 197 Ark. 839, 1939 Ark. LEXIS 325
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 20, 1939
Docket4-5382
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 126 S.W.2d 112 (Cooper v. Home Owners' Loan Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooper v. Home Owners' Loan Corp., 126 S.W.2d 112, 197 Ark. 839, 1939 Ark. LEXIS 325 (Ark. 1939).

Opinion

Holt, J.

Appellant brings this appeal from an adverse ruling of the Pulaski chancery court. The facts as presented by record, substantially, are: On May 4, 1932, appellant, together with her then husband, John D. Cooper, purchased as tenants by the entirety lot 22 in block 2 of Fleming & Bradford’s Addition to the city of Little Eock, Arkansas, from S. M. Dent, .Trustee of Home Eealty Corporation, bankrupt. The consideration was $1,700, of which $800 was paid in cash and the balance was represented by a lien note in' the principal sum of $900 with interest at 7 per cent, and payable in monthly installments of $25. The deed retained a vendor’s lien to secure the unpaid purchase money. The monthly payments were made to and including June, 1933, and a payment of $15 was made in July, 1933. On December 15, 1933, appellant was committed to the Arkansas State Hospital for Nervous Diseases and was an inmate on April 6, 1934. On this latter date, John D. Cooper, husband of. appellant, secured a loan from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, appellee, to refinance the indebtedness in the sum of $745.91 due S. M. Dent, trustee of the Home Realty Corporation, and in evidence thereof executed a note in the sum of $842.62, with interest thereon at 5 per cent, and to secure the payment thereof executed a mortgage to appellee to cover the above described property. The name Mary Ella Cooper is also signed to the note and mortgage in question.

It is agreed, however, that her name on the instruments in question cannot bind her for the reason that she was insane at the time of their execution. The appellee delivered to S. M. Dent, trustee, bonds of the face value of $725, with accrued interest of $7.61,- in full payment of the original lien held by Dent, and a check in the sum of $13.30. The balance of $96.71 consisted of taxes, insurance, abstract bill, and incidental expenses in connection with the closing of the loan. At the time appellee paid the amount due Dent on his vendor’s lien, Dent’s right to foreclose his lien had matured. Subsequent thereto appellant, Mary Cooper, was declared sane and default having been made in the payment due the Home Owners ’ Loan Corporation, foreclosure was begun in the Pulaski chancery court. Neither the appellant nor her husband paid any taxes on the land from the date of the execution of the mortgage to Home Owners’ Loan Corporation. The trial court held that the mortgage in favor of appellee was void as to appellant, Mary Cooper, but that it was in full force and effect as to John D. Cooper, former husband of appellant, and decreed an equitable sub-rogation in favor of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation for the amount due it together with taxes paid subsequent to the execution of the mortgage. The sale was held under the terms of the decree and property purchased by appellee. The court confirmed the sale, but subsequently set aside the confirmation.

Upon this state of the record, appellant earnestly insists here that the appellee, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, acted as a mere volunteer in paying the vendor’s lien held by S. M. Dent, and thereby acquired no right or interest in the property in question by virtue of having satisfied the vendor’s lien held by S. M. Dent, trustee, or under the note and mortgage executed to it by John D. Cooper, husband of appellant. To this contention we cannot agree. It is our view that the only question involved on this appeal is whether the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, appellee, is entitled to equitable subrogation to the rights of the original lien holder, S. M. Dent, trustee, and to the right to foreclose its lien on the property.

We are of the opinion under the facts as reflected by this record that the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation is entitled to subrogation and does have the right to foreclose its lien on the property. The undisputed facts show that on May 4, 1932, appellant and her husband acquired by deed an estate by the entirety in the property in question from S. M. Dent, trustee in bankruptcy for the Home Realty Corporation, and that Dent retained a vendor’s lien for the unpaid purchase money. At this time appellant was sane, and there can be no question as to the validity of this original lien held by Dent. The appellee, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, was formed for the purpose of relieving distressed home owners by amortization and refinancing of existing indebtedness. In Pennell v. Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, 21 F. Sup. 497, the court said: “The, Home Owners ’ Loan Corporation was created by authority of the act of June 13, 1933, as amended, 12 US'CA, § 1461 el seq., to engage in the business of loaning money and refinancing mortgages on real estate, a business that private corporations and individuals commonly engage in. The principal purpose of the act, as was recited therein, was to provide emergency relief with respect to home mortgage indebtedness, to refinance home mortgages, and to extend relief to owners of homes occupied by those who were unable to amortize their debts else-Avhere.” John D. Cooper, husband of appellant at the time, negotiated with appellee and secured the loan in question in the sum of $842.62, and this money was used in payment of the original vendor’s lien held by S. M. Dent, as trustee for the Home Realty Corporation, and since said deed to Cooper and wife (appellant) retained a lien on said property, we hold that appellee is clearly entitled to he subrogated to the rights of Dent under said lien and to a foreclosure thereof. One who liquidates a lien on behalf of another under such circumstances as reflected by this record cannot be said to be a volunteer.

Our court is committed to the rule that one who pays a debt at the instance of the debtor is not a .volunteer. If when the payment was made he manifested an intention to keep the prior lien alive for his protection, he will be deemed in equity a purchaser of the incumbrance. This court in Rodman, et al, v. Sanders, Admr., 44 Ark. 504, laid down the rule that one who advances money to pay off an incumbrance on land such as a vendor’s lien at the owner’s instance is not a volunteer. In Stephenson v. Grant, 168 Ark. 927, 271 S. W. 974, according to the facts there were two liens of record when the mortgage was executed by the owner to Mrs. Gaddis. Frielander ■& Oliven Company had sold a 40-acre tract to Turner Grant on March 2, 1918, reserving a lien on the land to secure the balance of the purchase money. On the 1st day of April, 1919, Grant and his wife executed a second mortgage to W. H. Stephenson to secure an indebtedness in the sum of $400, evidenced by a promissory note in said sum, and to secure future advances, subject to Frielander & Oliven Company’s lien for the balance of the purchase money. Grant made application to the cashier of the Merchants & Planters Bank of Eudora for a loan of $1,000 with which to pay the existing liens and to build a house on the land. The bank did not want to make a long time loan, and the cashier of the bank secured a loan for Grant with Mrs. Gaddis as mortgagee. Grant and his wife executed four notes in the sum of $250 each, and to secure the same executed a mortgage on the land to Mrs. Gaddis. The mortgage was recorded, and a release deed was executed by Frielander & Oliven Company and placed of record. The cashier of the bank assured Mrs. Gaddis she would have a first lien on the land, and testified that it was his understanding that Mrs. Gaddis was getting a first lien on the land.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Stephenson mortgage was of record, the Chicot chancery court decreed a subrogation in favor of Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
126 S.W.2d 112, 197 Ark. 839, 1939 Ark. LEXIS 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-v-home-owners-loan-corp-ark-1939.