Finley v. Halliburton

251 F. 860, 164 C.C.A. 76, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1766
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 8, 1918
DocketNo. 5034
StatusPublished

This text of 251 F. 860 (Finley v. Halliburton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Finley v. Halliburton, 251 F. 860, 164 C.C.A. 76, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1766 (8th Cir. 1918).

Opinion

CARLAND, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a final decree entered in an action wherein the St. Rouis Union Trust Company, hereafter called Trust Company, was plaintiff, and appellant and appellee and others were defendants, and an order entered in said action, subsequent to said final decree, striking the supplemental answer and cross-bill of appellant from the files of sa.id cause. The status of the case at the time the final decree and order above mentioned were entered cannot be understood without some statement as to the prior proceedings in said action.

On November 1, 1909, appellee was the owner in fee of two lots in Oklahoma City, Okl. On said date she leased the same to appellant for the term of 99 years at the yearly rental of $6,000, payable in advance in monthly installments of $500. The lease obligated appellant to erect upon the premises a modern building not less than three stories high in addition to the basement. The building was to cost not less than $40,000, and the erection thereof was to be commenced within one year. Appellant subsequent to the execution of the lease entered into a contract for the erection of a building on the leased premises for the sum of $130,000. Subsequently she borrowed from the Trust Company $75,000, lo be used in the erection of the building contracted for, and executed a mortgage, in which appellee joined, whereby they conveyed to the Trust Company as security for the contemplated loan the fee to the lots, as well as the improvements and buildings to be erected thereon. Appellant failed to pay the contractors the full amount due them for the erection of the building, and a mechanic’s lien was filed for the balance. In this lien was included the sums due materialmen and subcontractors. The architects also filed a separate lien. The liens were claimed on the leasehold interest of appellant and the building, and not against the fee. The subcontractors also filed separate lien claims. The Trust Company purchased all these claims. Appellant defaulted in the payment of interest on the mortgage debt, and the Trust Company filed its bill of foreclosure, and by a supplemental hill included the claims of the lien creditors.

To the original bill the lien claimants answered, setting up various mechanics’ and materialmen’s liens. The appellee also answered, and filed a cross-bill, setting up and asserting a lien upon the leasehold interest, the improvements erected thereunder, and the rents and profits for the rent then due her under the terms of the lease above mentioned. She alleged a default in the payment of the rent, and sought a foreclosure of her lien for the amount of the rent and attorney’s fees which might, be found due, and that her lien be declared prior and [862]*862superior to the liens of the mechanics and the Trust Company as to the leasehold interest. The appellant answered, and denied the defaults generally. The case went to trial, and a judgment of foreclosure was rendered in favor of the Trust Company for the amount of its debt, including the amount paid for the liens of the mechanics and materialmen, and in favor of appellee for the amount due her for rent, which was $6,900 and an attorney fee of $1,500. The trial court adjudged the priority of the several claimants to be as follows: First, the Trust Company for the entire sum due under its mortgage; second, the materialmen; and, third, appellee. From this judgment appellee alone prosecuted an appeal to this court.

This court on July 7, 1915, affirmed the judgment of foreclosure, but reversed the decree in regard to the priority of the liens. Before the mandate of this court was remitted to the trial court, appellee entered into the following stipulation and agreement with the Trust Company:

“Stipulation and Agreement.
“On the 5th of January-, 1914, a decree of foreclosure was rendered and filed in the above-entitled cause. Defendant Mary E. Mellon appealed from said decree to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, which court by its opinion and- judgment filed on the 7th day of July, 1915, sustained said appeal to the extent as in said opinion and judgment set forth. A petition for a rehearing of said cause in the Thiited States Circuit Court of Appeals was duly filed by St. Louis Union Trust Company, appellee, and on the 22d day of October, 1915, was denied. An application for a writ of certiorari has been granted by the Supreme Court of the United States upon, the application and in favor of St. Louis Union Trust Company, appellee in the Court of Appeals, and petitioner in the Supreme Court of the United States; and said cause is now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States on said writ.
“Since the rendition of the decree and judgment of the United States court at Guthrie above referred to, counsel for St. Louis Union Trust Company in said cause have performed the following services, to wit: (1) They have prepared, submitted, and made oral argument upon their brief in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals; (2) they have prepared and sued out their application for writ of certiorari; and (3) they have prepared and at this time 'are ready to file their brief in the Supreme Court of the United States. On this date J. H. Everest, Esq., of counsel for. Mary E. Mellon, now Mary E. Mellon Halliburton, tenders and offers to pay to St. Louis Union Trust Company the sum of $109,101.80, the same being the amount established by the said judgment on January 5, 1914, in favor of St. Louis Union Trust Company, plus interest thereon to this date, less payments received from, time to time by St. Louis Union Trust Company, and agrees to pay court costs accrued and to accrue in this cause in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court of the United States, and all subject to the terms of this stipulation and agreement. The St. Louis Union Trust Company is willing to receive said sum, and does receive the same from J. H. Everest, Esq., upon the terms and conditions set forth herein.
“Counsel for Mrs. Halliburton claim that because of said payment they are on this date entitled to be fully subrogated to all the rights of St. Louis Union Trust. Company under the judgment of said District Court of the 5th of January, 1914, as well as under the decree and .judgment of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals above referred to, and that the receipt of said sum by the St. Louis Union Trust Company wor’ks an equitable assignment Of all its right, title, and, interest in and to the same. It is expressly understood between the St. Louis Union Trust Company and Mrs. Halliburton that said sum of money is received by St Louis Union Trust Company without prejudice to the St. Louis Union Trust Company, or to any of its [863]*863lights, and it makes the claim that the receipt of said money does not work an oquIiaMe assignment, as claimed by Mrs. Halliburton, because it claims that Air;:. Halliburton has not paid, the judgment and costs in full. There is an issue between the parties as to whether the services of counsel for St. Louis Union Trust Company in the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court of the United States, and a reasonable value to be placed upon said services, are and should be proper costs in this suit. Mrs. Halliburton insists that the fees of counsel Cor the Trust Company, as fixed by the said decree of the oth of January, 1914, were and were intended to be in full payment to said counsel for all services rendered' and to be rendered in said cause.

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Bluebook (online)
251 F. 860, 164 C.C.A. 76, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/finley-v-halliburton-ca8-1918.