Federal Land Bank v. Pollender

399 A.2d 512, 137 Vt. 42, 1979 Vt. LEXIS 935
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedFebruary 6, 1979
DocketNo. 54-78
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 399 A.2d 512 (Federal Land Bank v. Pollender) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Federal Land Bank v. Pollender, 399 A.2d 512, 137 Vt. 42, 1979 Vt. LEXIS 935 (Vt. 1979).

Opinions

Larrow, J.

The plaintiff Federal Land Bank of Springfield appeals, by permission, from a judgment of foreclosure entered in its favor against the named defendants. At issue are the provisions of the judgment which subordinate the lien of plaintiffs mortgage to rights of the defendants Stewart H. and Margaret E. Werner (the younger Werners) and of the defendant-intervenors Hazen C. and Catherine S. Werner (the elder Werners), parents of Stewart. Defendants Wilfred L. and Joy W. Pollender, the makers of the note and mortgage foreclosed upon, have not appealed. Mrs. Pollender is the daughter of the elder Werners, and sister of Stewart Werner.

The property involved is a 340 acre farm in Bradford, Vermont, acquired by the elder Werners in 1932 and 1942. Hazen Werner, a Methodist Bishop, and his wife are elderly, and have occupied the Bradford property as their principal residence since 1932. They were, however, in Vergennes for some period prior to March 1,1973. Vergennes is the Pollender residence. Mr. Pollender is a real estate broker, without farm experience.

In early 1973 the elder Werners and the Pollenders discussed a program of “estate planning” whereby the Bradford real estate was to be transferred to son Stewart and daughter Joy, with possession reserved for a period in the elder Werners and money payments made to them over an extended period. The property was presumably to pass eventually to grandchildren. Mr. Pol-lender engaged his attorney to prepare an agreement, eventually executed, which is the nub of the instant controversy. Executed April 24, 1973, it was never recorded.

[44]*44Under the agreement the elder Werners promised to convey the Bradford property to the Pollenders by a warranty deed. It also provided that the elder Werners were to possess, for a ten year interval, the right to manage the property, occupy it and control its occupancy by others. During that period taxes and maintenance were to remain their responsibility. Proposed major improvements were to be subject to the approval of the Pol-lenders and the younger Werners.

The agreement obligated the Pollenders to make ten annual payments of $6,000 to the elder Werners beginning May 1,1973. Upon assumption by the younger Werners of half these payments, the Pollenders were to convey to them “one-half of said real estate free and clear of encumbrance and with the understanding that Stewart and Margaret Werner shall convey a portion of their share of said real estate to their children.” The Pollenders also promised to convey a portion of their share to their children.

On the same day, the elder Werners executed and delivered to the Pollenders a warranty deed in the usual form to the Bradford property, free from every encumbrance. The deed was recorded in Bradford two days later, on April 26, 1973.

During March and April, 1973, Mr. Pollender had been negotiating with plaintiff for a $100,000 loan on the property, secured by first mortgage. Various documents were prepared by them in connection with this application. A credit report dated March 28, 1973, described the sale as being with the agreement that $6,000 be paid the elder Werners annually “with no other money considerations.” They were noted as Mr. Pollender’s “in-laws.” An appraiser’s report dated February 21,1973, described a “wish to maintain property in family” and noted that “farm was acquired by family deal for care of wife’s parents.” The loan officer’s report referred to a “Family deal consideration with $6,000 paid annually to member’s in-laws.”

Despite this file information, all secured before the loan was actually made, the plaintiff never made any inquiry or attempt to determine the facts, circumstances or obligations surrounding the “family deal” or its effect on the property in question. The loan was closed on April 26, 1973, with a note and mortgage for $100,000. The mortgage and deed were recorded together. On December 13,1973, the loan, then delinquent, was refinanced by a new note under the future advances clause of the mortgage. [45]*45This foreclosure is for the sums due on that second note, also delinquent. No payments have been made since 1975.

In August, 1973, by deed not recorded until August, 1975, the Pollenders conveyed an undivided one-half interest in the Bradford property to the younger Werners, subject to “one prior mortgage to the Federal Land Bank of Springfield.” None of the Werners knew of the note and mortgage until some time after the April 26 closing; they received no part of the proceeds, which were paid over to the Pollenders. The elder Werners retained possession of the premises up to the present, kept it furnished and used it from time to time. They control the only keys.

None of the parties have alleged that the elder Werners were duped or defrauded in any way; they have not sought to avoid or to reform the original agreement here in issue. Rather, for reasons not apparent from the record, the Werners not only reaffirm the agreement, but insist that it has priority over the lien of plaintiffs mortgage, and that the subsequent deed to the younger Werners, executed in compliance with it, shares that priority. The trial court agreed, foreclosing only the defendants Pollender, and adjudging that any title acquired by the plaintiff would be subject to the rights of all the Werners, and of the grandchildren, under the agreement.

In reaching its conclusion, the trial court appears to have relied in part upon continued possession by the elder Werners as charging the plaintiff with a duty of inquiry, and in part upon the “signs and signals” to be found in the notations in its own files, made either before or contemporaneously with the original loan transaction. The reliance upon continued possession we do not view as justified.

We are aware that some of our cases indicate, without much analysis or discussion, that continued possession after conveyance is a sign or signal to a later grantee or lienholder that there may well be extant rights in the possessor, so as to give rise to a duty of inquiry. On their facts, those cases are authority for the proposition they express. But, for the most part, the facts which these cases involve give forth a much stronger signal than the two day continued possession, by a family member, which we deal with here. In Wright v. Bates, 13 Vt. 341 (1841), and in Allen v. Gates, 73 Vt. 222, 50 A. 1092 (1900), the continued possession was a matter of years, as it was in Perkins v. West, 55 Vt. 265 (1882). And, in Tomasi v. Kelley, 100 Vt. 318, 322, 137 A. 196, 198 [46]*46(1927), where the implied notice involved was continued possession by tenants of the former owner, the court emphasized possession “for any considerable time” as the proper evidence to establish such notice. We can establish no set rule for the time within which continued possession becomes an implied notice of claimed rights. The “prudent man” rule referred to in the cases must govern. We hold only that the failure to remove furniture within two days of a conveyance, especially a family conveyance, unaccompanied by actual personal habitation of the premises, cannot be such implied notice, standing alone.

It can, however, be of some significance in connection with the other “signs and signals” which were present. The fact that the possession continued until the second note was taken under the future advances clause of plaintiffs mortgage does not affect the result. Under our previous case law, now embodied in 8 V.S.A.

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Bluebook (online)
399 A.2d 512, 137 Vt. 42, 1979 Vt. LEXIS 935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-land-bank-v-pollender-vt-1979.