Downs v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.

79 F. 215, 24 C.C.A. 500, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1753
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 25, 1897
DocketNo. 502
StatusPublished

This text of 79 F. 215 (Downs v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Downs v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 79 F. 215, 24 C.C.A. 500, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1753 (5th Cir. 1897).

Opinion

MAXEY, District Judge,

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellant was made a party defendant to the suit in the court below December 3, 1889. On March 15, 1892, it appears that the circuit court overruled a motion made by him to vacate the receivership, from which no appeal was taken; nor did he appeal from the final decree of the court, passed March 8, 1895. His petition, in which he claimed the right to the net earnings of the railway as purchaser of the property, was filed October 22, 1895, and it was to the order made thereon January 6,1896, that he objected, and from which he appealed. It is clear, therefore, that he is not in a position to assail here the action of the court in the appointment of a receiver, and it is deemed altogether useless to cite authorities in justification of the order made by the court. The bill filed by the appellee the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company made out a plain case of equitable cognizance, and one in which the court was authorized to take possession of the property for the security of the creditors of the railway company and the protection of its stockholders.

The only question, then, which properly arises upon the specifications of error is whether the appellant, by virtue of his purchase of the Waco & Northwestern Division of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, September 8, 1888, is entitled to the net earnings resulting from the operation of the railway by the receiver from the date of his purchase to the final sale of the property, September 3, 1895. As to the period embraced between the date of appellant’s purchase and the filing of the bill in this suit, April 6, 1889, the report of the master, which was not excepted to, shows that no net earnings accrued from the operation of the Waco & Northwestern Division. Hence the claim to net earnings for that period has been properly abandoned. The master further reports that a considerable amount of net earnings was derived from the operation of said division between April 6, 1889, and September 3, 1895, and, at the date of the report there remained of net income in the hands of the receiver, or in the registry of the court, the sum of $362,855.37. To the income thus accruing between April 6, 1889, and September 3, 1895, the appellant asserts a right superior to that claimed by the appellees, who are in part the owners, and partly the representatives of the owners, of the first mortgage bonds, secured by the mortgage which was foreclosed in this suit.

It is conceded that the net earnings, superadded to the proceeds of the sale of the Waco & Northwestern Division, are not sufficient [219]*219to 'discharge the principal of the bonds and accrued interest. The record discloses that for several years prior to the filing o£ the bill in this suit the properly was in the hands of a receiver duly appointed by the court in other causes then pending, which embraced the entire property of the Houston & Texas Central Railway Company. Upon the day that the bill was filed, an order was made, pursuant to its prayer, appointing a receiver in the suit, who continued in possession as receiver of the Waco & Northwestern Division, and such receivership went on until the property was finally sold. It is thus seen that the Waco & Northwestern Division of the Houston & Texas Central Railway was in the sole and exclusive possession of receivers, duly appointed by the court in foreclosure; proceedings, throughout the entire period for which net earnings ¿are claimed by the appellant. Neither the appellant nor the railway company was in possession of the property a single day during the period mentioned. nor did either have aught to do with the management am! operation of the railway. Therefore the Texas cases cited by counsel for the appellant as to the rights of a mortgagor in possession under an ordinary trust deed, or his right under such a deed to demand the premises from a mortgagee who has unlawfully acquired possession (Silliman v. Gammage, 55 Tex. 369, Loving v. Milliken, 59 Tex. 427, Edrington v. Newland, 57 Tex. 633, a,ud others of similar type), are without application to the facts of this case. The mortgage which was executed by the Houston & Texas Central Railway Company to the appellee the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, as trustee, expressly authorized the trustee, upon the failure of the railway company to pay any part of the interest or principal of the bonds when the same should become due and payable, and for 60 days after having been demanded, to take possession of the railway, operate and manage the same, and receive the revenue and income thereof, and apply the surplus to the payment of the interest and principal of all the matured outstanding bonds. And the trustee was further empowered, upon the request of the holders of one-fifth in amount of the outstanding bonds, in case of default in the payment of any part of the interest due on the bonds, “to enter upon and take actual possession, with or without entry or foreclosure, of said railway and property herein described, and all and singular each and every part and parcel thereof, and assume its management, until the arrears of both principal and interest be paid, or the property sold as herein prescribed, receiving the rents, revenues, and income thereof, itnd applying them in the same manner as above stated.” And by the following clause of the mortgage the discretionary right of the railway company to appropriate the income of the property was restricted to the time when default should be made in the payment of the interest or principal of the bonds: “It is, however, expressly agreed that the said party of the first part [referring to the railway company] may dispose of the current net revenues and income of all (he said property and railway hereby conveyed, in such manner as it shall deem best, until default shall be made in the payment of the interest or principal of said bonds, or of any one or more of them.’" The railway company having defaulted in the payment of the in[220]*220terest, the trustee resorted to the courts for the more effectual protection of the rights of the beneficiaries under the mortgage, and upon its application the property was withdrawn from the possestion of the railway company, and placed under the control of the court.

In view of the provisions of the mortgage and the uninterrupted possession of the railway by the receiver from the filing of the bill to its final sale, we confess our inability to understand how the appellant can justly assert a claim to the net income accruing during the receiver’s control and management of the property. Surely, the railway company itself could not have preferred such claim, because, having made default in the payment of interest, it was debarred by the very terms of its contract. The appellant, in that respect, has no right superior to that of the railway company. He purchased the property subject “in all things'’ to the lien of appellees’ mortgage, which secured to the bondholders, as we have seen, the net income of the property, upon default by the railway company in the payment of interest. We have, then, before us a case where the contingency contemplated by the parties has occurred which authorized the trustee of the bondholders to act. A receivership was the result of such action, and we are clearly of opinion that the net income derived from the operation of the railway by the receiver should be appropriated to the payment of the debt, principal and interest, for the security of which the mortgage was executed. The rule announced is consistent with reason, and finds support in judicial decisions.

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Bluebook (online)
79 F. 215, 24 C.C.A. 500, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/downs-v-farmers-loan-trust-co-ca5-1897.