Donaldson v. Henry

121 P.2d 445, 63 Idaho 467, 1941 Ida. LEXIS 91
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 3, 1941
DocketNo. 6894.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 121 P.2d 445 (Donaldson v. Henry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donaldson v. Henry, 121 P.2d 445, 63 Idaho 467, 1941 Ida. LEXIS 91 (Idaho 1941).

Opinions

HOLDEN, J.

— August 24, 1928, Orin M. Henry’ and Eunice Henry, husband and wife, made, executed and delivered to Anna E. Donaldson certain promissory notes aggregating the sum of $1500.00 and to secure the payment of such notes executed and delivered a real estate mortgage upon certain lands located in Canyon County, Idaho, then owned by the Henrys.

May 27, 1933, she filed an application for leave to foreclose the mortgage in the District Court of the Seventh Judicial District of the State of Idaho, in and for Canyon County. It was thereby shown at the time the notes and mortgage were given it was represented the mortgaged *470 property was well worth the money borrowed; that notwithstanding this representation the mortgaged property was at that time unsaleable and practically worthless, and that the Henrys had abandoned it. On that showing the same day the application was filed, an order was made granting leave to foreclose.

June 5, 1933, complaint in foreclosure was filed against the Henrys and H. E. Severas and Jane Doe Severas, his wife, alleging on information and belief the Henrys had sold and conveyed their interest in the mortgaged property to the Severas, and that the Severas, by such conveyance, “assumed, promised and agreed to pay and perform each of the obligations of said notes and mortgages imposed upon the defendants Orín M. Henry and Eunice Henry.” On the same day, to-wit, June 5, 1933, summons was issued and personally served on all these defendants in Canyon County, Idaho.

August 4, 1933, the case was tried by and before Hon. John C. Rice, then judge of the said district court. Decree of foreclosure was signed by the trial judge. It was dated August 3, 1933, a day before the case was tried, evidently a clerical mistake in that the case was not tried on the third day of August, but on the following day, August 4, 1933, on which date it was filed. An order of sale was thereafter issued directing the sheriff to sell and the sheriff accordingly sold the mortgaged property, following which a deficiency judgment was entered against respondents.

September 12, 1933, Judge Rice entered the following order:

“ ... whereas the court entertains grave doubt as to the validity of said Deficiency Judgment, it is ordered that execution of said deficiency judgment be stayed until the further order of the court.”

October 23, 1933, appellant Anna E. Donaldson filed a motion to set aside the last above quoted order upon the grounds that the provisions of Chapter 150, 1933 Session Laws, were “inapplicable to the present case” and that the property was, “for all practical purposes, worthless,” and for that reason was bought in at the sheriff’s sale for a nominal sum.

*471 The motion was heard November 18, 1933. November 21, 1933, Judge Rice entered the following order:

“It is ordered by the court that the said motion of plaintiff be, and the same is granted, and that that certain order made and entered herein September 12th, 1933, staying execution upon the deficiency judgment docketed herein, be, and the same is hereby vacated, set aside and held for naught.”

December 15, 1933, appellant Anna E. Donaldson assigned the deficiency judgment to appellant J. L. Donaldson. Some years later, to-wit, October 26, 1939, the Henrys and Severns moved to vacate the deficiency judgment. October 31, 1939, the court (Hon. Thomas E. Buckner, District Judge, presiding) ordered the deficiency judgment vacated and set aside. Whereupon J. L. Donaldson appealed from that order to this court. (Donaldson v. Henry, 61 Idaho 634, 105 P. 2d 731.)

October 22, 1940, Anna E. Donaldson and J. L. Donaldson filed a motion in said court and cause to amend the decree of foreclosure entered August 4, 1933, nunc pro tunc. This motion was made upon the ground the judgment entered in said action August 4,1933,

“was not the true judgment rendered by said court at said time and that said judgment as it now stands is the result of a clerical error or misprint, and does not show the true judgment as rendered by said court, nor conform to the intentions of the judge of said court when rendering said judgment; it being the judgment of said court at said time that the defendants, Orin M. Henry and H. E. Severns were personally liable for said mortgage debt, and that any deficiency remaining after the sale of said premises, plus interest, expense of foreclosure and costs be docketed against said defendants, Orin M. Henry and H. E. Severns, who are personally liable therefor.”

November 25, 1940, the motion to amend was denied. This appeal is from the order denying the motion.

At the outset it should be stated the former appeal (Donaldson v. Henry, supra) to this court was from an order vacating a deficiency judgment entered by the clerk of the trial court against respondents. It was held on that *472 appeal the decree of foreclosure, as it stood, did not constitute a legal basis for the entry of a deficiency judgment, and the order vacating the deficiency judgment was, therefore, affirmed. The question was not presented on that appeal as to whether a trial court has the power to amend its own records so as to make the same conform to the facts and what was actually done at the time of the rendition and entry of its judgment.

Our first question on this appeal is: May a decree of foreclosure, defective as first entered in not naming the defendant personally liable for the payment of the mortgage debt, be amended at any time by adding a clause designating the defendant who is personally liable, where the record clearly shows who he is ?

It is provided by Sections 1-1603 and 9-101,1. C. A., as follows:

[1-1603] “Every court has power:

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8. To amend and control its process and orders, so as to make them conformable to law and justice.”

[9-101] “There can be but one action for the recovery of any debt, or the enforcement of any right secured by mortgage upon real estate or personal property, which action must be in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. In such action the court may, by its judgment, direct a sale of the incumbered property (or so much thereof as may be necessary) and the application of the proceeds of the sale to the payment of the costs of the court and the expenses of the sale, and the amount due to the plaintiff; and sales of real estate under judgments of foreclosure of mortgages and liens are subject to redemption as in the case of sales under execution; and if it appear from the sheriff’s return that the proceeds are insufficient, and a balance still remains due, judgment can then be docketed for such balance against the defendant *473 or defendants personally liable for the debt, and it becomes a lien on the real estate of such judgment debtor, as in other cases on which execution may be issued. * * * ”

In State v. Douglass,

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Bluebook (online)
121 P.2d 445, 63 Idaho 467, 1941 Ida. LEXIS 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donaldson-v-henry-idaho-1941.