Elson v. Pridgen

195 So. 889, 239 Ala. 678, 1940 Ala. LEXIS 373
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMay 9, 1940
Docket4 Div. 140.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 195 So. 889 (Elson v. Pridgen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elson v. Pridgen, 195 So. 889, 239 Ala. 678, 1940 Ala. LEXIS 373 (Ala. 1940).

Opinion

GARDNER, Chief Justice.

Omitting details of pleading here unnecessary to note, the bill in this case, originally one to quiet title, by amendments presented issues as to the validity of a certain mortgage on real estate in the city of Dothan, Alabama, bearing date February 22, 1924, executed by complain *679 ant’s (appellant’s) father, E. L. Dowling, to M. F. Pridgen, father of respondent. Complainant’s ownership of the property and respondent’s ownership of the mortgage are not controverted issues here. In the alternative, complainant sought redemption from this mortgage should its validity and binding effect be sustained. The chancellor sustained the mortgage, ordered a reference to the register, whose report thereon of September 6, 1939, was in all things duly confirmed — the amount fixed as due on the mortgage and to be paid by complainant as redemption being $13,794.19.

On January 4, 1933, E. L. Dowling executed his note for $17,000, payable January 4, 1934, to M. F. Pridgen, in which is the following recital: “This note and -amount is secured by a certain real estate mortgage executed by E. L. Dowling on February 22, 1924, for $19,-400.47, and recorded in Book 141, page 220, in the records of Houston County, Alabama, and this is evidenced by all amount due on such mortgage to date and is to draw eight per cent, interest from date of execution.” On the same day (January 4, 1933), E. L. Dowling addressed to M. F. Pridgen the following letter:

“Dothan, Alabama.

“January 4, 1933.

“Mr. M. F. Pridgen,

“Dear Sir:

“I have this day audited and verified my account with you which is secured by a certain mortgage executed to you on February 22, 1924, for $19,400.47, and recorded in Book 141, page 220, in the records of Houston County, Alabama, and find the balance due, after deducting all credits of every kind and description, to be $17,000.00. I assure you that in no way that there is no usury interest in this amount, and I this day executed to you a note for like amount with interest to be paid from date as full, final and complete settlement of all transactions heretofore made. I also authorize you to pay premiums on policies and charge against this mortgage, and all other amounts that might become necessary.

“Yours truly,

“Wit: E. L. Dowling.

“Val eta Armstrong.”

This letter as well as the note were witnessed by Valeta Armstrong, then bookkeeper for Pridgen and Holman, and whose testimony strongly corroborated by other proof, establishes the fact that E. L. Dowling himself calculated the amount he was due said Pridgen, and took the figures from the entries in the ledger, most of which he had made himself as bookkeeper for Pridgen and Holman, or for Pridgen. And, in his own handwriting, the ledger shows that on that date, January 4, 1933, he was due a balance of $17,000, and so entered by him on, the ledger with the notation, “note for balance, $17,000.”

That Dowling on January 4, 1933, executed the note to Pridgen for $17,000, acknowledging that it was secured by the mortgage of February 22, 1924, and on the same day signed a letter to like effect, is not seriously controverted, and, indeed, argument to the contrary could not be sustained in the light of the overwhelming proof in that regard.

Disinterested witnesses establish the good faith of the parties, both Dowling and Pridgen, with no indication of any unfair dealing or over-persuasion. Dow-ling himself calculated the balance due, and expressed satisfaction as to its correctness.

Complainant, in the first place, answers by saying the mortgage of February 22, 1924, had been paid prior to the execution of the note and other instrument bearing date January 4, 1933, and having been paid was not subject to revivor by these latter instruments, citing Cade v. Floyd, 120 Ala. 484, 24 So. 944; McWhorter v. Tyson, 203 Ala. 509, 83 So. 330; Hammock v. Oakley, 228 Ala. 588, 154 So. 906, 908. But we think the cited authorities are readily distinguishable.

Complainant’s insistence for payment of the 1924 mortgage rests largely upon the following circumstances: Two checks given by D. W. Baker to M. F. Pridgen, which are produced as having been found in an envelope in a metal box of Dow-ling’s after his death, aggregate «with exactness the amount of Pridgen’s' note to Baker also found in the metal box and marked paid; Baker’s testimony in this respect somewhat vague and uncertain, that the whole matter was settled by the Dowling and Pridgen papers, and with the further circumstance that a few days following the execution of the 1924 mortgage Dowling filed a petition in bank *680 ruptcy. Complainant' also offered some proof tending to show the 1924 mortgage was at one time in the metal box, and there is some implication that it was surreptitiously removed from the box. But we consider the evidence so overwhelmingly refutes this latter suggestion of any such alleged removal as to need no further comment here. The 1924 note and mortgage were among Pridgen’s effects when he died in March 1933, and went into the hands of the executrix of his estate. We think it clear enough this paper was never in Dowling’s possession. Dowling died in May 1934.

It may be conceded that the proof noted arouses a suspicion that the mortgage of 1924 was a “build up,” to use an expression found in the record, in contemplation of bankruptcy by Dowling, viewed also in the light of the relationship existing between Dowling and Pridgen, the latter’s wife and Dowling being first cousins. Yet Marvin Holman, junior partner of Pridgen and Holman, and witness for complainant, thought the matter between Baker and Pridgen bore no relation to the 1924 mortgage. But the exigencies of this case, require no definite conclusion upon this question. Let it be assumed that bankruptcy of Dowling was in contemplation, and there was a “build up” as to the amount: yet it clearly appears that regardless of that, matter, the mortgage did secure indebtedness of Dowling to Pridgen, the bona fides of which cannot be seriously questioned.

Baker himself admits that Dowling still owed Pridgen, but in no such large sum. And the mortgage of 1924 also discloses that it was given to better secure a mortgage executed by Dowling and wife to the Dothan Guano Company, on September 13, 1922, embracing this realty, for $6,000, and transferred to D. W. Baker and C. F. Baker, which mortgage was duly transferred on February 22, 1924) to M. F. Pridgen. We find no satisfactory indication in the record that this latter mortgage hás ever been paid. The 1924 mortgage contains also the following clause: “And to better secure the same, together with additional amounts furnished either of us by, or which either of us owe or may owe on any account to said M. F. Pridgen, its successors or assigns before such debt is fully paid, in money or otherwise.” And the ledger discloses numerous such advances made by Pridgen to Dowling in the years -following.

The Dowling note of January 4, 1933, and his letter to Pridgen, fully disclose that all parties considered the 1924 mortgage as securing these subsequent advances.

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Related

Gamble v. Moore
176 So. 2d 35 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1965)
Pridgen v. Elson
5 So. 2d 477 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1941)
Elson v. Pridgen
2 So. 2d 110 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1941)
State v. Black
196 So. 713 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
195 So. 889, 239 Ala. 678, 1940 Ala. LEXIS 373, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elson-v-pridgen-ala-1940.