Farber v. Ritchie

238 N.W. 436, 212 Iowa 1396
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 20, 1931
DocketNo. 41195.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 238 N.W. 436 (Farber v. Ritchie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farber v. Ritchie, 238 N.W. 436, 212 Iowa 1396 (iowa 1931).

Opinion

De Graff, J.-

This case involves two questions: (1) Did the lower court err in denying the appointment of a receiver, and (2) did the lower court err in dissolving a temporary writ of injunction?

The record facts are as follows: Upon a suit to subject real property, alleged to have been fraudulently conveyed, to the payment of a debt already in judgment, the court entered a decree in favor of the plaintiff, established title in the judgment debtor, created a lien thereon in favor of the plaintiff, subject to a mortgage debt of $16,000, and “subject to the payment of the sum of $501.60 by Plaintiff” to one who had paid the interest on the mortgage, and made said sum of $501.60 a lien on said premises superior to that of plaintiff. Said decree further provided that said land should be sold under special execution to satisfy said judgment, subject to said mortgage lien and to said interest payment lien; and that after the expiration of the time *1398 within which said property might be redeemed by the owner, said owner’s right, title and interest therein should cease and determine.

The real estate was sold on May 29, 1930, and a sheriff’s certificate of purchase issued to plaintiff. No redemption from said sale was ever made and on June 10, 1931, a sheriff’s deed was issued to the plaintiff, conveying said property to her, subject, of course, to said mortgage lien and said interest payment lien. Some time after this decree was entered, the holder of the mortgage foreclosed the same and the property was sold thereunder on January 12, 1931, and the equity of redemption will expire on January 12, 1932.

The plaintiff in the first suit is Elizabeth S. Phillips, Executrix; the defendant in whom the title was reinvested is John Mellrath; the defendant who paid the interest is M. L. Fisher. The plaintiff in the foreclosure suit is the American Commercial & Savings Bank of Davenport, Iowa. No question is raised as to the foreclosure decree, nor does it appear in the record of the case.

On April 18, 1931, Mellrath made and delivered to E. N. Farber of Marshalltown, his attorney, as trustee for certain purposes therein named, an assignment of the rents, profits, income and share of crop then due and thereafter to become due him from the real estate in question, and authorized said Farber, as trustee, to take whatever action he might desire to enforce the payment thereof.

On May 25, 1931, Fisher, the interest payment lien holder, assigned to Farber, as an .individual but not as trustee, his judgment and lien, and authorized Farber to proceed in any lawful manner to make said judgment out of said real estate.

Two days thereafter, and on May 27, 1931, and two days before all equity of redemption should expire for Mellrath, May. 29, 1931, Farber, as assignee and trustee of Mellrath and as assignee of Fisher, entered into a lease with one Ritchie and wife, whereby Farber leased said property to Ritchie and wife from May 27, 1931, to January 12, 1932, the date when the equity of redemption would expire for all persons from the sale of the land under the foreclosure sale. Ritchie and his wife were tenants on the same property in the year 1930.

By an oral lease, made at or before March 1, 1931, through *1399 one James C. Mellrath,- the property was leased by John Mc-Ilrath to the Ritchies from March 1, 1931, to January 12, 1932.

Some time after June 10, 1931, the date of the sheriff’s deed, the executrix commenced an action in forcible entry and detainer to recover possession of said property from the Ritchies. Farber, alleging to be the owner of the Fisher judgment- and also the owner of the crops, rents and profits of said property by virtue of assignment from Mellrath, intervened, alleging no ■title in plaintiff, and defendants Ritchie answered, denying title. A motion to strike the petition, and a motion to remove said cause to the district court by intervener, were filed. The motion to strike was sustained and the motion to remove said cause to the district court was overruled by the Justice of the peace whereupon Farber, as an individual, filed petition in equity, asking temporary injunction against the Justice of the Peace and against the Executrix from proceeding further, and also asking the appointment of a receiver of the lands and crops. The temporary injunction was issued and afterwards dissolved upon motion, and -the request for the appointment of a receiver was denied. From the order dissolving the injunction and from the refusal to appoint a receiver, the plaintiff appeals. The record facts are not in dispute with respect to the material matters. The application of the law to the facts is in no sense difficult when the whole picture is made and presented for inspection.

The appellant claims that the executrix never had a lien on the property because of the peculiar wording of the decree in the case brought to set aside fraudulent conveyances, in that the decree provided that the judgment of the executrix was .established as a lien “subject to the payment of the sum of $501.60] ’ ’ to the interest payor Fisher. This contention is readily answered. The provisions of the decree later on direct the property to be sold subject to this lien, and further, by statute, the judgment was a lien at the time title to the land was restored to John Mellrath. We do not consider the wording of the decree sufficient to prevent the lien of the judgment from attaching unless and until the judgment creditor had paid -off the lien of Fisher. In other words, the payment by the executrix of the Fisher lien was-not a condition precedent to the attaching of the judgment lien upon the property in question when title was restored in the judgment debtor.

*1400 The executrix, therefore, had a right to sell the property-subject to the mortgage lien and to the interest payor’s lien. She had a right to bid in the property at sheriff’s sale thereof. She had a right to accept the sheriff’s deed therefor, which placed the title in her subject to the mortgage lien and to the Pisher lien.

This holding disposes of all of the contentions made by the Ritchies and by Parber, Trustee, and Parber, individual, that the executrix had no title and that the sheriff’s sale unto her was void. Being possessed of the title to said land, executrix commenced her action of forcible entry and detainer against the tenants, Ritchies. Proceedings were there had as hereinbefore stated. "Without awaiting the final determination of said forcible entry and detainer suit, the plaintiff secured a temporary writ of injunction in the district court, which enjoined the plaintiff and Justice from proceeding further. Upon motion to dissolve, the temporary writ was nullified. Was this error?

By an opinion written by Cole, J., and-filed in this court on June 28, 1865, in the case of Crawford v. Paine, 19 Iowa 172, this court said:

“The action which is thus sought to be enjoined, is one for forcible entry and detainer; an action of a qmsi criminal character, wherein the verdict is properly ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty.’ This action was, by the earlier decisions, held to be beyond the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery to determine, Hamilton v. Hendrix’ Heirs, 1 Bibb., 70; McGinn v. Stewart 1 Monr., 190.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re Kampen
190 B.R. 99 (N.D. Iowa, 1995)
Schuldt v. Lee
284 N.W. 89 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
238 N.W. 436, 212 Iowa 1396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farber-v-ritchie-iowa-1931.