Erwin v. Brooke

126 S.E. 777, 159 Ga. 683, 1925 Ga. LEXIS 39
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided January 15, 1925·No. No. 4396·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinions

Gilbert, J.

The case has been before the court on two previous occasions. Brooke v. Jones & Oglesby, 143 Ga. 684 (85 S. E. 879); Erwin v. Brooke, 149 Ga. 434 (100 S. E. 439). A statement of the case, as it then appeared, will be found in the report of the ease when it was first here. Another branch of the litigation was before the court in Brooke v. Lowry National Bank, 141 Ga. 493 (81 S. E. 223). The exception now is to the judgment of the court in overruling demurrers filed by Erwin, receiver, to amendments filed by defendants, T. J. Brooke and J. P. Brooke, to their answers; to rulings made by the court, to whom the case was submitted without the intervention of a jury, upon the admissibility of certain evidence offered by Erwin, receiver; and upon certain findings of law and fact as made by the court.

As we view the case, the chief issue is on the question whether T. C. Erwin, receiver for Jones & Oglesby, was entitled to be subrogated pro tanto to the rights of the Lowry National Bank, holder of a judgment and special lien on the property of G. W. Brooke, including the notes of J. W. Bell. The court ruled against such subrogation. The assignment of error in this regard is as follows: “That said order in paragraph first of the judgment was. vitally erroneous in decreeing that plaintiff, T. C. Erwin as receiver herein, has no right to be subrogated herein to the lien of the Lowry National Bank to the extent that said lien was discharged by payments made by Jones & Oglesby; and said judgment should have held distinctly and emphatically that said Jones & Oglesby made said payments in conformity to an order of court herein, and that their payments extinguished the prior lien to the extent of such payments on the entire one hundred acres involved in this suit,'and that said T. C. Erwin as receiver herein has the right to [685] have all of this land sold as a whole for the purpose of paying T. J. Brooke the small balance that is now due him on the fi. fa. transferred to him by the Lowry National Bank, and for the purpose, next, of reimbursing T. C. Erwin as receiver herein for the entire amount heretofore paid by Jones & Oglesby in conformity to the orders of this court.” The evidence authorized the court to find that the Lowry National Bank had obtained a judgment against G. W. Brooke, which included a special lien, as above mentioned; that the judgment of the Lowry National Bank had in large part been paid off, but a balance remained unpaid; that thereafter T. J. Brooke purchased the fi. fa., including the lien, from the Lowry National Bank and took a formal assignment to himself ; furthermore, that Jones & Oglesby paid their notes due to Bell and assigned to Brooke and by the latter, except one note, deposited as collateral security with the bank. As stated above, the debt of Brooke to the bank was not fully paid off and discharged, and had not been, when the judgment in the present case was rendered by Judge Tarver under an agreement submitting the case to him without the intervention of a jury. “There are known to the law two kinds of subrogation—legal and conventional. Ordinarily, when the term is used without qualification, legal subrogation is meant. Legal subrogation arises by operation of law, where one having a liability or a right or a fiduciary relation in the premises pays a debt due by another under such circumstances that he is in equity entitled to the security dx obligation held by the creditor whom he has paid. Conventional subrogation depends upon a lawful contract, and occurs where one having no interest in or relation to the matter pays the debt of another, and by agreement is entitled to the securities and rights of the creditor so paid.” 25 B. C. L. 1312; Wilkins v. Gibson, 113 Ga. 31, at p. 42 (38 S. E. 374, 84 Am. St. R. 204); Boley v. Daniel, 72 Fla. 121 (72 So. 644, L. R. A. 1917A, 734). Since there is no mention of conventional subrogation, that is, that there was any lawful contract to that effect, we take it that legal subrogation is the kind claimed. It is unnecessary to deal at length with the general subject of subrogation, since a learned discussion of that subject will be found in Wilkins v. Gibson, supra. Several sections of the Civil Code (1910) deal with the subject of subrogation. Sections 3538, 3567, and 3568 deal with the right of a surety to subrogation. Section [686]*6866038 deals with the right of a creditor other than the vendor or the holder or assighee of purchase-money or secured debt, having a judgment against a defendant in fi. fa., to the right of subrogation; and section 6976 deals with the rights of a purchaser at a void or irregular judicial sale under foreclosure of a mortgage, and provides that such p.urchaser succeeds to all of the interest of the mortgagee. These are the only sections of our code having reference to that subject. Obviously the plaintiffs in error can derive no benefit from any of these sections, since they fall under no classification mentioned. The judgment rendered by the court was without error, because, “To entitle one creditor to be subrogated to the rights of another, as a general rule the former must have satisfied in full the demand of the latter, so as to relieve him from trouble, expense, and risk.” Wilkins v. Gibson, supra; 25 R. C. L. 1318, § 6, and annotations.

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Erwin v. Brooke, 126 S.E. 777, 159 Ga. 683, 1925 Ga. LEXIS 39 (Ga. 1925).

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