Davis v. Poland

59 A. 520, 99 Me. 345, 1904 Me. LEXIS 93
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedDecember 12, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 59 A. 520 (Davis v. Poland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Poland, 59 A. 520, 99 Me. 345, 1904 Me. LEXIS 93 (Me. 1904).

Opinion

Wiswell, C. J.

These two cases, by direction of the court, were tried together. That of Poland, v. Davis et al. is a real action, while that of Davis v. Poland is an action of trespass quare clausum for an alleged trespass upon the same premises that are demanded in the real action.

In the first case the presiding justice ordered a verdict for the plaintiff; he also ordered a verdict for the plaintiff in the action of trespass, submitting the question of damages to the jury, but instructing the jury that there was no evidence of any malice on the part of the defendant in that action and that the plaintiff could not recover damages for the injury done to the réalty as the title was in Poland.

First, as to the real action: One. Edward Crouse, under whom both parties, claim, was at one time the owner of the demanded premises, he conveyed them to his daughter, the defendant in the real action, who, with her husband, gave a bond to her. father for his support and secured the same by a mortgage upon the premises; both bond and mortgage were conditioned for the support of Edward Crouse during his natural life “.in the house this day deeded by said Edward to said Alwilda and at his death give him suitable burial.” At the time of the conveyance from Crouse to his daughter, he had a wife , living, from whom he had separated, who did not join in the conveyance, and who was not mentioned in the bond and mortgage given back for the support of the grantor.

It further appears that the mortgagee, Crouse, left the premises conveyed to Mrs. Davis, in the fall of 1900, and thereafter lived with his son, Mark B. Crouse, in another town in the same county until the time of his death shortly after midnight on March 18;' 1901. Upon the petition of a person claiming to be a creditor; an admin[347]*347istrator was appointed upon the estate of Edward Crouse, who subsequently attempted to foreclose this mortgage to secure the support of his intestate by publication in the newspaper, the last publication being on July 4, 1902. After the expiration of the period allowed for redemption, the administrator, having obtained license therefor from the Probate Court, conveyed the premises to the plaintiff in the real action. This is the title of the plaintiff, except that in addition to this, it also appears that the widow of Edward Crouse, who did not join in the conveyance to Mrs. Davis, after the death of Crouse, conveyed her interest in the property to Poland. The plaintiff sought to recover the whole of the demanded premises, and the verdict ordered by the presiding justice for the plaintiff was for the whole of the premises.

Various questions are raised by the defendants as to the validity of the attempted foreclosure, and as to other matters, which need not now be considered, both because of our conclusion as to the propriety of the direction of the verdict, and also, so far as the validity of the foreclosure is concerned, because we think that it is immaterial whether the mortgage was foreclosed or not, since, if the foreclosure was invalid, the deed from the administrator to the plaintiff would probably be sufficient to affect an assignment of the mortgage, if it then existed unextinguished, and this would be sufficient to authorize the plaintiff to maintain this action, if the other necessary facts exist.

But, except as to the title to an undivided interest, which Poland has by reason of the conveyance to him from the widow of the previous owner, it is plain, we think, that before the plaintiff in the real action would be entitled to a judgment for possession of the whole of the demanded premises, or to a verdict upon which such a judgment would be based, he must show that this mortgage was existing and unextinguished at the time of the appointment of the administrator, at the time of the conveyance or assignment to him, and at the time of the commencement of the suit, except perhaps as it may have been extinguished by the foreclosure; in other words, he must show that there had been a breach of the condition of the mortgage. Ordinarily, in the case of a mortgage given to secure the payment of money, [348]*348the burden of proving payment of the mortgage indebtedness is on the mortgagor. Crooker v. Crooker, 49 Maine, 416. And where a common law judgment for possession only is sought it is not even necessary for the mortgagee to produce the notes referred to in the mortgage or other evidence of the existence of the mortgage indebtedness, where there is no evidence to the contrary and no circumstances from which a payment of the indebtedness may be inferred. Although it is otherwise when either party asks for a conditional judgment. Morse v. Stafford, 95 Maine, 31. And so, too, in an ■action to recover possession of premises by the mortgagee in a mortgage given for his support, where there is no agreement to the contrary and no clause from which such an agreement may be fairly inferred, the mortgagee is entitled to possession of the mortgaged premises, and consequently can maintain a real action to recover such possession, whether there has been a breach of the condition of the mortgage or not. Hadley v. Hadley, 80 Maine, 459, and numerous other cases in this state.

But in this case, where the condition both of the bond and of the mortgage provided that the support to be furnished Crouse should be in the house upon the premises described in the mortgage, the implication is clear that it was the intention of the parties that the mortgagors should retain possession of the premises until a breach of the condition, because such possession is absolutely necessary in order to enable the mortgagors to perform the condition of the mortgage. Therefore, neither the mortgagee in his lifetime, nor his administrator nor an assignee or grantee of the administrator can maintain this action for possession, so far as it is based upon the mortgage, unless it be shown that there was a breach of the condition of the mortgage. 'Without any evidence at all upon this question the defendant would prevail. Therefore in accordance with the familiar principles, in order to maintain this action for the recovery of the whole of the demanded premises the burden of proving a breach of the condition is upon the plaintiff. This was decided in Bryant v. Erskine, 55 Maine, 153. The burden then being upon the plaintiff, we do not think that the facts stated in the bill of exceptions so clearly show a breach of the condition of the mortgage as to warrant the presiding [349]*349justice in taking the case from the jury and in directing a verdict for the plaintiff. As we have already seen, the mortgagee left the defendants’ home some months before his death and made his home with his son, in another part of the county until the time of his death. There is no evidence whatever of any failure upon the part of the mortgagors to support him up to that time. To perform the condition of this mortgage, it was not the duty of the mortgagors to support the mortgagee elsewhere, and, although it was a part of the condition that they should give him a suitable burial at his death, that did not require the mortgagors to follow him wherever he might see fit to go, and to provide for his burial wherever he might be at the time of his death, after he had voluntarily abandoned the home which they were bound to provide for him.

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Related

Mann v. Homestead Realty Co.
180 A. 807 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
59 A. 520, 99 Me. 345, 1904 Me. LEXIS 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-poland-me-1904.