Dodge v. Omaha & Southwestern R. R.

20 Neb. 276
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 20 Neb. 276 (Dodge v. Omaha & Southwestern R. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dodge v. Omaha & Southwestern R. R., 20 Neb. 276 (Neb. 1886).

Opinion

Reese, J.

The facte in this case, substantially as stated in the abstact, are as follows: On the 17th day of December, 1872, Rollin C. Smith and Wallace R. Bartlett were the owners of lot four in block 232, in the city of Omaha, as originally surveyed and platted; that on said day the said Smith and Bartlett borrowed $1,000 of Daniel Dodge, appellee in this case. On the 6th day of March, 1873, for the purpose securing the payment of said amount, the said Smith and Bartlett executed and delivered a mortgage upon said above described real estate to the said Daniel Dodge, which mortgage was duly recorded March 20th, 1873.

On the 17th day of April, 1873, the Omaha and Southwestern Railroad Company^ one of the' appellants herein, condemned and appropriated all of said lot for right of way purposes, the said Omaha and Southwestern Railroad Company being a corporation duly organized under the laws of the state of Nebraska.

The railroad company took possession of, and has remained in possession of, the said property ever since.

That on February 23d, 1877, the said appellee, Daniel Dodge, filed his petition in the Douglas county district court against said Bartlett and Mary A. Smith and the administrators of Rollin C. Smith, then dead, setting forth the execution and delivery of said notes and mortgage.

[278]*278The said railroad company was likewise made a party, but was thereafter dismissed.

A decree was taken against said Bartlett and Mary A. Smith and the administrators of Rollin C. Smith, at the February term of said court,for the sum of $1,276.66, and $51 attorneys’ fees.

On May 2nd, 1877, an. order of sale was issued out of said court, commanding the sheriff to- sell said property in satisfaction of said decree, which order was returned on August 30th thereafter, endorsed, “Property not sold for want of bidders.”

Afterwards, to-wit, April 12th, 1878, an alias order of sale was issued, commanding the sheriff of said county to appraise and sell said property in satisfaction of said decree, which alias order was, on the 29th of June, 1878, returned into said court endorsed, being not sold for want of bidders.

On December 1st, 1877, plaintiff filed his petition in said cause, asking that said judgment and first order of sale be set aside, and for leave to file an amended petition, making new parties defendant, to-wit: The Omaha and Southwestern Railroad Company and George C. Hobbey; and on December 1, 1877,it was ordered and adjudged by-said court that the decree and order of sale be set aside and leave granted plaintiff as asked for in his petition. In accordance with said order, plaintiff, on January 17,1878, filed an amended petition in said suit, making .said Omaha and Southwestern Railroad Company and said George C. Hobbey parties defendant in said cause.

Afterwards, and on February 13, 1878, said Omaha and Southwestern Railroad Company, by its attorney, filed a motion asking that said order and all thereof be set aside on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction, which said motion was on April 6, 1878, sustained by said court upon the grounds stated and no other, and said order was set aside and dismissed without prejudice as to the Omaha and Southwestern Railroad Company.

[279]*279Afterwards, to-wit, on November 29, 1880, a third order of sale was issued, directed to the sheriff of said Douglas county, commanding him to advertise and sell according to law the said property in satisfaction of said decree; and in pursuance of said order, on the 31st day of December, 1880, said property was offered for sale, and sold to appellee herein, who was plaintiff in the foreclosure proceedings, he being the highest and best bidder therefor, for $2,000, that amount being not less than two-thirds of the appraised value of said property. Said sale -was duly ratified and confirmed by said court, and a deed ordered, which was afterwards duly executed, acknowledged; and delivered, and was duly filed and recorded in the county clerk’s office of said Douglas county.

On the 10th day of March, 1883, this action was commenced. It is alleged in the petition that' nothing had been paid on the notes and mortgage except interest to December 1874, that no notice of any kind of the condemnation proceedings was ever served on plaintiff, although his mortgage was on record when defendant’s petition to condemn was filed; and the condemnation money was paid into court and drawn out by the mortgagors. The prayer of the petition is a foreclosure of his mortgage as against the defendant railroad company. On the 30th day of March, 1883 — after the commencement of this suit — plaintiff executed to John A. Dodge a power of attorney authorizing him to execute a quit-claim deed therefor. On the 18th day of April, 1883, said John Dodge executed a quit-claim deed to John I. Redick, said deed containing the following in addition to the usual recitals: “ And also our right, title of the proceeds touching said lot, notes, and mortgage, the said Redick to litigate said suit out of his own expenses,” On the 11th of April, 1885, a decree was entered finding for the plaintiff, and that there was due on the mortgage the sum of $2,215, and decreeing it a first lien on said property, prior to any rights of defendant, and [280]*280-ordering the property sold. Defendant appeals to this -court.

It is claimed by appellant that plaintiff is not the real party in interest, and that this suit cannot be maintained by him, the real party being John I. Redick. Upon this question the evidence is that the suit was commenced before the execution of the deed to Redick, and he testifies in substance that at that time he had no interest in the property. That the date of the deed — the 18th day of April, 1873 — was the date of the transaction. This testimony is not directly disputed or contradicted. A letter from plaintiff, written at his home in New York,'dated March 19, 1883, to his brother in Omaha, who seems to have had charge of the matter at the time the suit was instituted, indicates quite clearly that plaintiff did not then know that the suit had been actually commenced; but there is no disaffirmance of the act of his brother shown after he had knowledge of what was done, and we must presume he affirmed it. The purchase of the interest of the plaintiff in the subject of the action would not prevent the prosecution of this suit to its termination in the name -of the original plaintiff. Civil Code, Sec. 45. Magenau & Co. v. Bell, 13 Neb., 247.

The question as to the character of the title or right acquired by defendant — 'whether the fee or an easement — is, I think, unimportant in this case, as the result so far as the effect upon the property and the rights of plaintiff are ■concerned, would be substantially the same in either event; .•as, if the fee, the whole title of,the mortgagor is transferred to defendant, and plaintiff's security destroyed — if affected .at all — and, if an easement only, the whole of the mortgaged property has been occupied, and there is nothing remaining -upon which the mortgage could operate with any. effect. Believing the question to be an immaterial one in this ■cause, we express no opinion upon it.

The remaining questions are: Did the condemnation by [281]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Western Fertilizer & Cordage Co. v. City of Alliance
504 N.W.2d 808 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1993)
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance v. Nordhues
261 N.W. 687 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1935)
Mickelson v. Anderson
19 P.2d 1033 (Utah Supreme Court, 1932)
Board of Commissioners v. Northwestern Mutual Life Ins.
209 N.W. 256 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1926)
City of Detroit v. Fidelity Realty Co.
182 N.W. 140 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1921)
Arthur v. Board of Com'rs of Choctaw County
1914 OK 181 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1914)
George v. Pracheil
137 N.W. 880 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1912)
Key West Wharf & Coal Co. v. Porter
63 Fla. 448 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1912)
City of Omaha v. Omaha Water Co.
192 F. 246 (Eighth Circuit, 1911)
Munger v. T. J. Beard & Brother
127 N.W. 872 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1910)
Arterburn v. Beard
126 N.W. 379 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1910)
Kerr v. McCreary
120 N.W. 1117 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1909)
State ex rel. Katelman v. Fink
120 N.W. 938 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1909)
Currier v. Teske
120 N.W. 1015 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1909)
McCague v. Eller
110 N.W. 318 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1906)
Brigham City v. Chase
83 P. 436 (Utah Supreme Court, 1906)
Vogt v. Binder
107 N.W. 383 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1906)
State v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.
75 Neb. 4 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1905)
Alexander v. Overton
72 N.W. 212 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1897)
Monroe v. Hanson
66 N.W. 12 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1896)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
20 Neb. 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dodge-v-omaha-southwestern-r-r-neb-1886.