First National Bank v. Illinois Steel Co.

51 N.E. 200, 174 Ill. 140
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 18, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by61 cases

This text of 51 N.E. 200 (First National Bank v. Illinois Steel Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First National Bank v. Illinois Steel Co., 51 N.E. 200, 174 Ill. 140 (Ill. 1898).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Craig

delivered the opinion of the court:

It is first contended by appellant that the Illinois Steel Company, the mortgagee, having obtained its decree of foreclosure and sale and applied the proceeds, the mortgage has accomplished its purpose and is functus oficio,—that no further rights or equities can be enforced by the Illinois Steel Company. The claim of appellee is, that the provision in the mortgage authorized the appointment of a receiver by the court to collect the rents and profits during the period of redemption, and, as the sale under the foreclosure decree did not pay the debt, to apply them in payment of the deficiency.

¡The agreement in the mortgage is as follows: “Upon the filing of any bill to foreclose this mortgage, in anjr court having jurisdiction thereof, such court may appoint A. F. Knox, or any proper person, receiver, with power to collect the rents, issues and profits arising out of said premises during the pendency of such foreclosure suit, and until the time to redeem the same from any sale that may be made under any decree foreclosing this mortgage shall expire; and such rents, issues and profits, when collected, may be applied toward the payment of the indebtedness and costs herein mentioned and described.” Under this clause in the mortgage a lien is given, by express words, upon the rents and profits, and such an equitable lien a court of equity will enforce.

Rents and profits are the subject of mortgage. Jones in his work on Mortgages (vol. 1, sec. 140,) says: “A mortgage may be made of rents under a lease, and although a right of entry be given to the mortgagee, the mortgage is a mere security, like any other mortgage of real estate, and the mortgagor remains the real owner until foreclosure and sale.” In section 771 he says: “A mortgagee has no specific lien upon the rents and profits of the mortgaged land unless he has in his mortgage stipulated for a specific pledgee of them as part of his security.” This was expressly stipulated in this mortgage given by the Ashley Wire Company to appellee. Had there been no deficiency after the foreclosure sale of the Ashley Wire Company property and plant, the rents would have belonged to the owner of the equity of redemption. Under the express agreement in the mortgage, there being a deficiency of $5316.50 after the sale, the Illinois Steel Company had an equitable right to have the rents and profits applied towards the payment of the deficiency decree, from the time of the foreclosure sale until the expiration of the time of redemption, and this right might properly be enforced on an application to the court to appoint a receiver.

The contention by appellant in this case that the enforcement of this provision rests entirely in the sound discretion of the chancellor, is not tenable. The chancellor was authorized to act under this clause in the mortgage, and appoint a receiver for the collection of the rents and profits during the period of redemption, to be applied on the deficiency decree.

In the case of Oakford v. Robinson, 48 Ill. App. 270, which is similar to the one at bar, the mortgage contained a clause authorizing- the appointment of a receiver, with power to take possession of the premises and collect the rents due and to become due thereon during the period allowed for redemption, and to apply the same in payment of any deficit should the premises prove insufficient to pay the amount secured by the mortgage. In the decision of the case the court said: “The rents and profits of the land, as well as the land, was pledged by the mortgag-e for the security and payment of the amount due the appellee. This authorized the appointment of a receiver, in the discretion of the court, without regard to the solvency of the mortgagor. (2 Jones on Mortgages, sec. 1516; 8 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, p. 284.) And such appointment was lawfully made, though by a decree subsequent to the original decree. (8 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, p. 239.) By the appointment of the receiver the appellants obtained an equitable lien on the rents and profits of the land during the statutory period allowed for redemption, if necessary for the full payment of any deficiency in the security. In support of this view, see 1 Jones on Mortgages, secs. 773, 774, 775; 2 Jones on Mortgages, sec. 1536; High on Receivers, secs. 643, 644; Beach on Receivers, sec. 532.”

That a court of equity has power to appoint a receiver and grant equitable relief where there are no express words in the mortgage giving a lien upon rents and profits derived from the property, is conceded. In such a case, whether relief will be granted is dependent upon the facts and circumstances at the time the application is made. This court said in Haas v. Chicago Building Society, 89 Ill. 498 (at p. 502): “We find the decided weight of American authority to be in favor of the proposition that the court may, even when the mortgage does not by express words give a lien upon the income derived from such property, appoint a receiver to take charge of it and collect the rents, issues and profits arising therefrom. Such action will not be taken, however, unless it be made to appear the mortgaged premises are an insufficient security for the debt, and the person liable personally for the debt is insolvent, or at least of very questionable responsibility. A combination of these two things seems to be required in all the cases we have examined, and in one or more of the States it is held necessary still other elements should be conjoined to these before such procedure is justified.” Tested even by this requirement, if the mortgage did not give a lien by express words, or authorize the appointment of a receiver, the facts in the case at bar show that the court committed no error. The deficiency decree itself evidences the fact that the Ashley Wire Company’s property was insufficient security for the mortgage debt, and the facts established the allegation in the petition that the Ashley Wire Company, the mortgagor, was insolvent. Undoubtedly, a court of equity exercises a certain discretion, even where express words are used for the purpose of giving a lien on the income of the mortgaged property. The court must determine whether the language used in the mortgage is sufficient to give a lien on the income. In the one case the authority arises from the contract, the express words giving a lien on the rents and profits; in the other the court exercises its equitable powers under the facts and circumstances presented at the time the application to appoint a receiver is made.

Appellant also contends that the final decree foreclosing the mortgage ought to have provided for a receiver to take possession of the rents and profits of the Ashley Wire Company pending the redemption; that a decree of foreclosure and sale, as to all questions that might have been adjudicated between the parties, is final. It could not be ascertained until after the sale whether there would be a deficit requiring the appointment of a receiver to collect the rents and profits during the time of redemption. Under the decree of foreclosure the property described in the mortgage was sold. The rents and profits to accrue during the period of redemption were not sold, and no order could be entered until it was ascertained at the foreclosure sale that the mortgaged premises were insufficient to pay the indebtedness evidenced by the mortgage. In Haas v. Chicago Building Society, supra, it was said (p.

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Bluebook (online)
51 N.E. 200, 174 Ill. 140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-illinois-steel-co-ill-1898.