Escalante Co. v. Kent

7 P.2d 276, 79 Utah 26, 1932 Utah LEXIS 84
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 25, 1932
DocketNo. 5049.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 7 P.2d 276 (Escalante Co. v. Kent) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Escalante Co. v. Kent, 7 P.2d 276, 79 Utah 26, 1932 Utah LEXIS 84 (Utah 1932).

Opinion

ELIAS HANSEN, J.

The defendant Charles Kent prosecutes this appeal from a judgment entered in the district court of Salt Lake county, Utah. The judgment appealed from directs the plaintiff to pay to the clerk of that court the sum of $1,751.50-, to be by the clerk distributed as follows: To the defendant R. H. Barton, the sum of $641.65; to the defendant Charles Kent, the sum of $724.93; and to the defendant Lucile Kent, the sum of $384.92. The judgment further provides that when the plaintiff shall have paid the sum of $1,751.50 into court it shall be discharged from further liability on its note and mortgage and shall be subrogated to all the rights and benefits which the defendants have in the note and mortgage, and that the defendant Charles Kent be perpetually restrained from further prosecuting a suit brought by him in the district court of Iron county, Utah, to foreclose a mortgage executed by the plaintiff on certain real estate in Iron county, Utah.

*28 At the threshold of this cause we are confronted with the claim of the defendant Charles Kent that the action upon which the judgment appealed from is founded was not triable in the district court of Salt Lake county because, prior to the commencement of the action in Salt Lake county, suit had been begun in the district court of Iron county, Utah, involving the same parties on the same subject-matter, and to test the same rights.

The record before us discloses these facts: On February 8, 1924, the plaintiff executed and delivered to Charles B. Kent, the son of defendant Charles Kent, a note for the principal sum of $2,560. Charles B. Kent was named as the payee of the note. On the same day that the note was executed, the plaintiff also executed and delivered a mortgage for a like amount on certain lands in Iron county, Utah, as security for the payment of the note. Charles B. Kent and Lucile Kent, his wife, one of the defendants in this action, were named as the mortgagees in the mortgage. The note was payable in installments, the last installment being due on May 1, 1928. On February 24, 1925, the Escalante Company, plaintiff herein, conveyed the mortgaged premises, subject to the mortgage, to George H. Ennis. Part but not all of the indebtedness evidenced by the note and secured by the mortgage was paid. Under date of August 24, 1927, Charles B. Kent assigned and transferred his interest in the note and mortgage to Charles Kent appellant herein. In November, 1928, Charles Kent brought a suit in the district court of Iron county, Utah, to foreclose the mortgage so transferred to him by Charles B. Kent. In the suit so brought by Charles Kent in Iron county the Escalante Company, a corporation, plaintiff herein, R. H. Barton and Lucile Kent, two of the defendants herein, and George H. Ennis, E. C. McGarry, and A. E. McGarry, were named as defendants. The complaint in the district court of Iron eounty is in the usual form of a suit to foreclose a mortgage. One of the paragraphs of that complaint reads as follows:

“Plaintiff is informed and believes and therfore upon information and belief alleges that the defendants E. C. McGarry, A. E. McGarry, *29 R. H. Barton and Lueile Kent have or claim to have some right and interest in and to the said mortgage and the mortgaged premises, but all of said claims, if any, have accrued since the lien of said mortgage.”

The complaint filed in the district court of Iron county, Utah, also contains as part of its prayer:

“That the defendants George H. Ennis, E. C. MeGarry, A. E. Mc-Garry, R. H. Barton and Lueile Kent and all persons claiming under them or any of them subsequent to the execution of said mortgage upon said premises be required to show what interest they have, if any in said note, mortgage and the mortgaged premises hereinbefore described, and that said defendants and each of them and all persons claiming under them may be barred and foreclosed of all right, claim or equity of redemption in the said premises and every part thereof.”

The record further discloses that prior to the commencement of this action all of the parties herein except the defendant Lueile Kent appeared in the Iron county suit. The record before us is silent as to whether or not Lueile Kent was served with process or appeared in the Iron county suit.

The complaint upon which the judgment here appealed from is founded was filed in the district court of Salt Lake county, Utah, on January 24, 1929. The cause of action set out in the complaint is in the nature of an action of interpleader. The plaintiff seeks a determination of the amount the plaintiff is indebted to the defendants on the note and mortgage which plaintiff made, executed, and delivered to Charles B. Kent. Plaintiff further prays that upon ascertainment of the amount so owing upon the note and mortgage it be permitted to pay the sum so ascertained into court and be dismissed from further liability to the defendants; that plaintiff be subrogated to all the rights of the defendants under the mortgage; that defendants be required to litigate their respective claims to the moneys so paid into court; and that defendants be restrained from prosecuting any action for the foreclosure of the mortgage. The defendant Charles Kent demurred to *30 plaintiff’s complaint upon various grounds. One of the grounds of demurrer was

“that there is another action pending- between the same parties for the same cause in Iron County, State of Utah, in which the plaintiff has been served and has filed its appearance as one of the defendants involved in the mortgage referred to in paragraph 2 of plaintiff’s complaint.”

The demurrer was overruled. Appellant complains of such ruling. He here contends that the demurrer should have been sustained upon the ground that the cause pending in the district court of Iron county precluded the district court of Salt Lake county from proceeding in the action begun in the latter court. The complaint filed in the district court of Salt Lake county does not mention or refer to the suit pending in the district court of Iron county, and therefore the demurrer was properly overruled. Comp. Laws Utah 1917, §§ 6568 and 6572; Vance v. Heath, 42 Utah 148, 129 P. 365.

After his demurrer was overruled the defendant Charles Kent answered the complaint. His answer contains these averments:

“This answering defendant admits that he claims an interest in said promissory note as the owner of said note and alleges the facts to be that prior to the commencement of this action and on or about the 13th day of November, 1928, this defendant filed suit in the District Court of the Fifth Judicial District of the State of Utah, in and for Iron County, against the plaintiff herein upon the said promissory note set forth in paragraph 2 of plaintiff’s complaint, wherein and whereby this defendant is foreclosing a mortgage given as security for the payment of said promissory note by the said plaintiff herein on certain lands situated and being in said Iron County described as follows, to wit:
“Lots 1 and 2 and the south Yz of the northeast % and the southeast Yi

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Bluebook (online)
7 P.2d 276, 79 Utah 26, 1932 Utah LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/escalante-co-v-kent-utah-1932.