Davis v. Langsdale

41 Ind. 399
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1872
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 41 Ind. 399 (Davis v. Langsdale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Langsdale, 41 Ind. 399 (Ind. 1872).

Opinion

Downey, J.

—This was an action commenced by the appellee against the appellants, to establish and enforce his right to redeem certain real estate, which had been sold by [400]*400the sheriff] under, and in accordance with, the act of the legislature of June 4th, 1861, found in 2 G. & H. 251. There was a demurrer to the complaint, the demurrer overruled, an answer filed by the defendants, and a demurrer sustained to it. Proper exceptions were taken. Final judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, and the defendants appealed. The errors assigned are, the sustaining of the demurrers to the first and second pai-agraphs of the answer, in not sustaining the demurrers to the complaint, and in rendering final judgment in favor of the appellee. We need not set out the pleadings in full, nor examine the errors assigned in order. There is but a single question involved, and that can be understood by a short statement of the facts. Langsdale held a mortgage on certain real estate to secure the payment of four promissory notes, payable in one, two, three, and four years from date, executed by one Bond, on the 23d day of August, 1865. The note first maturing was paid, and Langsdale assigned the second to one Gay. When the note assigned to Gay matured, he instituted his action upon it and to foreclose the mortgage, making Langsdale and certain other junior incumbrancers parties as defendants. Langsdale filed an answer or cross complaint, setting up his notes and uniting with Gay in the request for the foreclosure of the mortgage. The decree is very long, and need not be set out at length. The facts found by the court ascertain in detail the rights of Gay, of Langsdale, and of the several junior incumbrancers and purchasers. The decree proceeds to adjudge to Gay a recovery of the amount then due on his note and a foreclosure of the mortgage upon the complaint and the cross complaint. It ascertains that the mortgaged premises were divisible into four parts, which are described, and not further divisible, and directs the sale of those parcels in a prescribed order, having reference to the equities of junior incumbrancers and purchasers. It was directed that, if, by the sale of one or more of these parcels, less than the whole of them, enough should be realized to pay Gay’s note, then past due, the further selling should be [401]*401postponed, to be resumed when the first note still held by Langsdale should fall due, and that when enough had been sold to pay it, the further sale should be postponed, in like manner, and resumed when his last note should fall due. As to any surplus over the instalment actually due, that might be produced by any such sale, it was directed that it should be applied on the next maturing instalment. But as to the parcel numbered four, it was directed that no part of the proceeds to be derived from its sale should be applied on the two notes still held by Langsdale, he having released the mortgage as to that portion in favor of the purchaser of it.

The proceedings under the first order of sale issued are immaterial, as the sale made under that order was set aside. Langsdale v. Mills, 32 Ind. 380.

Upon the second order of sale, which was issued at the instance of Gay, the property was sold and purchased by Gay, realizing an amount sufficient to pay only his judgment. Gay received the sheriff’s certificate, which he assigned to the appellants. Langsdale has received no part of the amount due him on his part óf the mortgage debt. Within a year from the time of the sheriff’s sale, Langsdale paid to the clerk the amount of the bid of Gay, with ten per cent, thereon, for the purpose of redeeming the property, and the clerk made an entry showing the redemption.. The appellants, however, disregarded the redemption, and5 procured the sheriff to execute to them a deed, in pursuance-of the' certificate of purchase so assigned to them by Gay,, etc. It is stated that Bond is insolvent.

The question is, has Langsdale a right to redeem the-property, under the statute of 1861? The first section of that act is as follows: “That whenever, hereafter, any real1 property, or any interest therein shall be sold on any execution or order of sale issued upon any judgment, decree or other judicial proceeding within this State, the owner thereof, his heirs, executors, administrators, or- any mortgagee or judgment creditor having a lien upon the same: [402]*402may redeem such real property or interest therein, at any time within one year from the date of such sale by paying to the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, or the clerk of the court from which such execution or order of sale was issued for the use of said purchaser, his heirs or assigns, the purchase-money, with interest thereon at the rate of ten per cent, per annum.”

The position assumed by the appellants, as stated in the brief of counsel, is, that Langsdale, the appellee, does not come within this statute, because he was himself a judgment 'and execution plaintiff, and, therefore, not authorized to redeem from his own sale, and also because he was neither “a mortgagee nor a judgment creditor having a lien,” within the meaning of this statute.

We are inclined to give a liberal construction to this statute. The object of its enactment was to prevent the sacrifice of real estate when sold at sheriff’s sale, by allowing it to be redeemed by the owner, or his heirs, executors, or administrators, or by any mortgagee or judgment creditor having a lien upon the same, within the year.

In The State Bank v. Tweedy, 8 Blackf. 447, the rights of parties holding notes secured by the same mortgage, first came before this court, and it was then said by the learned judge who delivered the opinion, after alluding to-the fact that it was a question for the first time before the court, and after a reference to authorities: “It cannot be stated then, as a general proposition, that in this State, the assignment of any one of the notes secured by a mortgage, carries with it, either pro rata or pro tanto, a corresponding portion of the mortgage security; but, as appears from what has been said, the effect of such assignment is to carry a pro tanto interest in that security subject to the paramount claim of notes previously due. The different instalments in a mortgage, when secured by corresponding notes, may be regarded as so many successive mortgages, each having priority according to its time of becoming payable.” Many [403]*403other cases have followed this, in which the same doctrine has been held and applied.

In Crouse v. Holman, 19 Ind. 30, it was held by this court that a judgment of foreclosure on one of the notes secured by a mortgage could not be pleaded as' a bar to a subsequent suit on the same mortgage to enforce payment of another note, because the notes might properly be considered as so many successive mortgages and successive causes of action. See, also, Sample v. Rowe, 24 Ind. 208.

In the case under consideration, Langsdale was made a defendant, and set up his notes. A personal judgment was rendered in favor of Gay against Bond, and an order was made for the foreclosure of the mortgage as to the note held by Gay. Upon the cross complaint or answer of Langsdale, a judgment was rendered in his favor foreclosing the mortgage as to the notes held by him. In the case of Langsdale v. Mills, supra,

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Bluebook (online)
41 Ind. 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-langsdale-ind-1872.