Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Union Cemetery Assn.

40 A.2d 205, 136 N.J. Eq. 15, 1944 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 7, 35 Backes 15
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedNovember 29, 1944
DocketDocket 61/142
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 40 A.2d 205 (Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Union Cemetery Assn.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Union Cemetery Assn., 40 A.2d 205, 136 N.J. Eq. 15, 1944 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 7, 35 Backes 15 (N.J. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

The Union Cemetery Association was incorporated November 5th, 1909, under the Rural Cemetery Act. Samuel E. Renner was the promoter and served with others as the first trustees. Renner purchased a farm and a franchise was *Page 17 procured to operate a cemetery thereon. The land which he purchased he offered to sell to the trustees of the Association and agreed to perform certain acts in connection therewith. The Cemetery Association issued $1,000,000 in bonds in certain denominations at 6% payable semi-annually, the bonds to mature in twenty years, and to be secured by a mortgage on the land and franchise. The offer was accepted and the land and franchise was thereupon conveyed to the trustee of the Association.

Bonds for $500,000 were delivered to the promoter who sold them to the public at varying prices below par. Default having occurred, the Fidelity Union Trust Company, as trustee, was, by the bondholders directed to foreclose the mortgage.

In the foreclosure proceedings the Cemetery Association interposed a number of defenses, one of which was partial failure of consideration. In that proceeding this court found that Renner was entitled to a vendor's lien and that such a lien could find "expression in a mortgage." The mortgage was valid to the extent of the consideration that actually passed to the Association and the amount thereof was referred to a master to be ascertained.Fidelity-Union Trust Co. v. Union Cemetery Association,102 N.J. Eq. 100; 139 Atl. Rep. 706. The master rendered his report to which report exception was taken by bondholders and the Cemetery Association, some of which exceptions were sustained and others modified or overruled. Fidelity Union Trust Co. v.Union Cemetery Association, 104 N.J. Eq. 326;145 Atl. Rep. 537. In a portion of the opinion rendered by Vice-Chancellor Backes he says: "The cemetery association has heretofore sold lots and plots for which it has not accounted. One-half the proceeds with interest is presently payable to the mortgagee and for which it is entitled to a decree, to be executed as inSpear v. Locust Wood Cemetery Co., supra." (72 N.J. Eq. 821.)

Final decree was entered July 3d 1929, in which it was adjudicated that the Cemetery Association owed on the mortgage securing the outstanding bonds the sum of $505,000, for which sum complainant was given "a lien on one-half of the gross proceeds of the sales of the cemetery lots and plots *Page 18 constituting the land and premises in the complainant's bill of complaint described: and that said sum of $505,000 was and is payable out of one-half of the gross proceeds of the sales of the said cemetery lots and plots received by the said defendant;" that the Cemetery Association had withheld from complainant $168,192.36, which sum was "presently payable with lawful interest thereon calculated from the said 30th day of April, 1929." The decree also provided that execution was not to issue for this sum without special order of the court; the balance of the mortgage debt to be payable out of one-half of the gross proceeds of sale.

On August 3d 1929, an amended final decree was entered which was consented to by the defendant Union Cemetery Association, and various bondholders, and which provided that the decree shall "run for the benefit of all those holders of bonds alleged to be secured by the mortgage in the bill of complaint described, who may avail themselves of the terms of this amended decree, but shall be ineffective as to all other parties to this suit, and such other parties shall continue to be limited by the said decree of July 3d 1929."

The amended final decree found (1) the amount due from the Cemetery Association to be $536,142.57 principal money with legal interest thereon from April 30th, 1929; (2) that this sum with interest is payable "when received by the defendant out of the gross proceeds of the sales of cemetery lots;" (3) "that the said moneys are a lien upon the said proceeds and said cemetery in the manner provided by the Rural Cemetery Act to vendors for the security of the purchase money of land." It further provided for the surrender of the old bonds for cancellation and for the execution and delivery of certificates of indebtedness to the former bondholders, and that if default was made "complainant shall be entitled to the remedies given by the statute concerning Rural Cemeteries, provided that the moneys hereinbefore mentioned shall be made only by sequestration of the proceeds of the sale of cemetery lots and plots constituting the said land and premises or in the same manner by a receiver to be appointed by this court for that purpose and at no time by levy, execution and sale of the said land." *Page 19

After the entry of the amended decree the old bonds were surrendered and certificates of indebtedness accepted in lieu thereof. The Cemetery Association functioned, set up books which it procured to be regularly audited by H. Braverman Co., copies of which audits were furnished by the Association to the trustee and it made payments under the decree. Some payments were made on account of principal and regular payments were made on account of interest.

The Union Cemetery Association was in possession and control of all the property encumbered by the mortgage until 1938. In the ordinary course of the business it sold cemetery lots and plots and paid the trustee one-half of the gross proceeds of the sale of such lots and plots.

In June, 1938, the Union Cemetery Association entered into an agreement with Hollywood Memorial Park, Inc., a corporation of this state, whereby it agreed to sell to Hollywood Memorial Park, Inc., its unembellished lands lying on the west side of Stuyvesant Avenue consisting of about seventy-five acres. In that agreement the amended final decree in this court in which the Fidelity Union Trust Company as trustee was complainant and the Union Cemetery Association and others were defendants, and in which the amount of the indebtedness of the Cemetery Association to the beneficiaries of said decree was established to be $536,142.57 with legal interest thereon from April 30th, 1929, is expressly referred to at length and in considerable detail. In both the final decree and the amended final decree leave was reserved to the parties to apply to the court for further directions as may be deemed proper or become necessary to enforce the performance of such decrees.

Sometime in the year 1942 the Cemetery Association conceived the notion that the payments theretofore made and which it caused to be entered on its books as interest, and which payments were so certified and by its own accountant so carried on its books and records, and which the trustee had disbursed and credited as interest on the certificates in the column provided therefor to the knowledge of the Cemetery Association, should now be credited on principal, and in conformity with this idea notified the Fidelity Union Trust *Page 20 Company, trustee, to endorse such payments on the certificates of indebtedness as follows: "In payment of principal and/or interest as may later be determined."

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 A.2d 205, 136 N.J. Eq. 15, 1944 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 7, 35 Backes 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-union-trust-co-v-union-cemetery-assn-njch-1944.