Eureka Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Long

380 P.2d 439, 191 Kan. 249, 1963 Kan. LEXIS 252
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedApril 6, 1963
DocketNo. 43,134
StatusPublished

This text of 380 P.2d 439 (Eureka Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Long) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eureka Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Long, 380 P.2d 439, 191 Kan. 249, 1963 Kan. LEXIS 252 (kan 1963).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Schroeder, J.:

This is an appeal from an order of the trial court refusing to open a default judgment on the ground that it was irregularly obtained.

The primary question is whether the default judgment foreclosing two mortgages and setting the period of redemption at six months was irregularly obtained.

The appellants contend the mortgages were not purchase money mortgages, and that the redemption period should have been fixed at eighteen months. This is the extent to which the appellants seek to have the foreclosure judgment modified.

In December, 1956, Jesse J. Long and his wife (defendants-appellants) borrowed $27,500 from the Eureka Federal Savings and Loan Association, a corporation (plaintiff-appellee) to construct a motel in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. Two notes were given by the Longs to cover the loan, and each note was secured by a real estate mortgage. The Longs defaulted in the repayment of the loan and the savings and loan association foreclosed its mortgages and bid in the mortgaged property at sheriff’s sale on November 6, [250]*2501961. Both mortgages contained the following provision which was printed in the body of the mortgage:

“It is further agreed by the parties of the first part and the Eureka Federal Savings and Loan Association, Eureka, Kansas, that this is a purchase price mortgage.”

When the foreclosure petition was filed in the district court of Chase County, Kansas, the Longs were personally served with summons, but they failed to answer or appear in the action. Accordingly judgment was entered by default on the 29th day of September, 1961.

At the trial the mortgages, copies of which were attached to the petition and made a part thereof, were duly submitted to the court and merged in the judgment. The trial court found “said mortgages are purchase price mortgages,” and fixed the period of redemption at six months from the date of sale.

The mortgaged property was sold on the 6th day of November, 1961, to the savings and loan association, and the sale was confirmed on the same day. A new term of court opened on the 7th day of November, 1961.

Thereafter on the 16th day oí November, 1961, the Longs filed a motion to reopen and set aside the judgment of the trial court entered on the 29th day of September, 1961, insofar as it fixed the period of redemption at six months, and requested the trial court to enter an order fixing the period of redemption at eighteen months.

The motion alleged the mortgages foreclosed in the action were not purchase money mortgages; that the judgment was obtained by fraudulent representations of the savings and loan association to the court and was irregularly obtained as provided in G. S. 1949, 60-3007, Third and Fourth. The motion also recited that the judgment was obtained without the introduction of any evidence, and that no mention was made in the petition that the savings and loan association would request a reduction in the period of redemption.

The appellants in their reply brief concede that no fraud was involved and state that they so informed the trial court on the hearing of the motion. We are therefore confronted solely with an attempt on the part of the appellants to have the trial court modify the foreclosure judgment, fixing the period of redemption at six months, on the ground that it was irregularly obtained pursuant to the provisions of G. S. 1949, 60-3007, Third.

[251]*251It must be noted the motion filed by the appellants on the 16th day of November, 1961, was after the term of court in which the foreclosure judgment was entered. It is settled law that when a mortgage on real property is foreclosed, and the property is sold and the sale confirmed, such confirmation is res judicata and becomes a final and binding judgment of the court, subject only to the right of appeal. It cannot be collaterally attacked after the time for appeal has passed and after the term of court has changed, except in accordance with the code of civil procedure. (G. S. 1949, 60-3007, et seq.; National Reserve Life Ins. Co. v. Kemp, 184 Kan. 648, 656, 339 P. 2d 368, and cases there cited.)

Here the appellants seek to reach through to the foreclosure judgment by an appeal from the order of the trial court overruling their motion to vacate the foreclosure judgment, and by an appeal from the foreclosure judgment entered more than two months prior thereto, on the force of G. S. 1959 Supp., 60-3314a. (See, First National Bank of Topeka v. United Telephone Ass’n, 187 Kan. 29, 353 P. 2d 963.)

It may be conceded the appellants are here on their appeal from the order overruling their motion to vacate the default judgment (G. S. 1949, 60-3303; and New York Life Ins. Co. v. Slentz, 145 Kan. 849, 67 P. 2d 522), but the provisions of 60-3314a, supra, under these circumstances, do not have the effect of opening up the foreclosure judgment to this court on appeal. The procedure to be followed in cases of this type was thoroughly discussed in Becker v. Roothe, 184 Kan. 830, 339 P. 2d 292, to which reference is made. Further discussion herein will proceed upon the assumption that the reader is familiar with this case.

Since the appellants’ motion was framed to come within the provisions of 60-3007, Third, supra, the motion filed after the term in which the judgment was rendered is not addressed to the judicial discretion of the court. The appellants were required to establish “irregularity” as that term is used in the statute at the hearing on the motion.

An “irregularity,” within the meaning of the foregoing section of the statute, authorizing vacation of a judgment for irregularity in obtaining it, is the want of adherence to some prescribed law or mode of procedure, and consists either in omitting to do something that is necessary for the due and orderly conduct of a suit, or doing it in an unreasonable time or improper manner. (Dearborn Motors [252]*252Credit Corporation v. Neel, 181 Kan. 598, 313 P. 2d 243; and Becker v. Roothe, supra.)

At the hearing in the trial court the appellants produced witnesses who testified in effect that the real property, described in the mortgage foreclosure petition and in the mortgages, had been deeded to the appellants in 1943 and paid for at that time. This was the extent of the appellants’ evidence. This would indicate that the foreclosure judgment fixing the redemption period at six months may have been erroneous, but it does not establish irregularity.

The appellants’ contention was that no evidence was presented to the trial court in the mortgage foreclosure proceedings is not substantiated by the record. The mortgages, copies of which were made a part of and incorporated in the petition, were presented to the trial court as evidence in the mortgage foreclosure proceedings. From these documents and the recitals in them the trial court determined the mortgages to be purchase money mortgages and fixed the period of redemption at six months.

By the provisions of G. S. 1949, 60-748, “Allegations of value, or of amount of damages, shall not be considered as true by failure to controvert them; but this shall not apply to the amount claimed in actions on contract, express or implied, for the recovery of money only.” All other allegations which are uncontroverted are to be taken as true.

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Related

First National Bank of Topeka v. United Telephone Ass'n
353 P.2d 963 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1960)
National Reserve Life Insurance v. Kemp
339 P.2d 368 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1959)
Becker v. Roothe
339 P.2d 292 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1959)
Dearborn Motors Credit Corporation v. Neel
313 P.2d 243 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1957)
Brenholts v. Miller
101 P. 998 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1909)
Capitol Building & Loan Ass'n v. Ross
7 P.2d 86 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1932)
New York Life Insurance v. Slentz
67 P.2d 522 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1937)
Home Owners Loan Corp. v. Holmberg
79 P.2d 859 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
380 P.2d 439, 191 Kan. 249, 1963 Kan. LEXIS 252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eureka-federal-savings-loan-assn-v-long-kan-1963.