First National Bank v. Steneck Title & Mortgage Guaranty Co.

176 A. 93, 13 N.J. Misc. 4, 1934 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 3
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedDecember 28, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 176 A. 93 (First National Bank v. Steneck Title & Mortgage Guaranty Co.) 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
First National Bank v. Steneck Title & Mortgage Guaranty Co., 176 A. 93, 13 N.J. Misc. 4, 1934 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 3 (N.J. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

Fielder, V. C.

The Steneck Title and Mortgage Guaranty Company (hereinafter called Title Company), as part of its business, loaned and invested money on real estate bonds and mortgages, many [5]*5if not all of which, it deposited with Steneck Trust Company (hereinafter called Trust Company), as trustee and against the mortgages so deposited the Title Company issued and sold participation certificates and by such certificates guaranteed payment of the principal and interest thereof. June 2Tth, 1931, the commissioner of banking and insurance took possession of the business and properties of both corporations and proceeded to liquidate them. Thereafter on application to this court by said commissioner, an order was entered July 14th, 1933, relieving the commissioner and the Trust Company from further duties as trustee and appointing the complainants First National Bank of Hoboken and J. W. Rufus Besson as trustees in place of the Trust Company. In the instant suit the new trustees apply to this court for instructions and directions as to various difficulties and problems which confront them in the administration of their trust. They have possession of bonds and mortgages for a total of nearly $1,200,000 and they have foreclosed mortgages for a total of $162,000, under which foreclosures they have bought in or accepted deeds for the foreclosed property and the total amount of participation certificates issued by the Title Company and outstanding is $2,051,435. I understand that under the administration of the commissioner of banking and insurance, some trust mortgages were paid off or reduced in amount, others were foreclosed and title taken in the name of the Title Company and that the money so paid on mortgages and the titles to the foreclosed properties have been or will be turned over to the complainants by the commissioner and the Title Company to hold as part of complainants’ trust. The certificate holders are so numerous, many being without the jurisdiction of the court, that it was deemed impracticable to make all of them parties to this cause and it was considered that the rights of all could be protected herein by making the holders of more than ten per cent, of the total certificates issued, defendants as representatives of their own interests and of other certificate holders similarly situated and accordingly the bill of complaint names the commissioner of banking and insurance and more than one hundred and thirty certificate holders as defendants herein.

[6]*6The minutes of a meeting of directors of the Title Company held November 8th, 1928, show the adoption of a resolution to enter into an agreement with the Trust Company for the latter to act as trustee for the issuance of participation certificates and that upon such agreement being entered into, all bonds and mortgages of the Title Company should be delivered to the Trust Company against which such certificates would be issued. This was the only corporate action taken by the Title Company concerning the issuing of certificates and the only agreement entered into between it and the Trust Company bears date October 10th, 1929. By the terms of that agreement the Title Company deposited with the Trust Company certain bonds and mortgages and agreed to add thereto other bonds and mortgages, against which guaranteed participation certificates would be issued in the form set out in the agreement. The Title Company commenced to issue participation certificates November, 1928, notwithstanding that the trust agreement was not entered into until almost a year later and all certificates (called blue certificates) issued thereafter and up to January 12th, 1931, were in the form set out in the trust agreement and purported to be issued against a group of bonds and mortgages deposited by the Title Company with the Trust Company. After January. 12th, 1931, the Title Company discontinued the issue of the blue certificates and thereafter and up to the time the commissioner of banking and insurance took over the two corporations, it issued two kinds of certificates, one known as T certificates and the other known as D certificates. The T certificates are identical in form with the discontinued blue certificates and assign to the holder “an undivided share * * * in and to certain bonds and mortgages * * * held in special deposit by the Banking Corporation of the State of New Jersey under a trust agreement by and between ourselves and Steneck Trust Company as trustee.” The D certificates are identical in language with the T certificates, except that the D certificates, besides using the above quoted words to express assignment of an undivided share in bonds and mortgages deposited with the trustee, also describe a particular mortgage and purport to assign a share therein, [7]*7so it may be claimed that in form the D certificates assign to the holder thereof a share in a particular mortgage and also a share in all other mortgages deposited with the trustee. These D certificates were issued without any corporate act of the Title Company authorizing them and contrary to the provisions of the trust agreement. They present for determination the question of the rights of the holders thereof as against the rights of holders of blue and T certificates.

The mechanics for issuing certificates were handled by the Trust Company exclusively. The only record produced to show what bonds and mortgages were delivered (there was no formal assignment) to the Trust Company and how they were treated with respect to the trust, is a series of cards kept by the Trust Company. That company was agent of the Title Company for the sale of certificates; after January 12th, 1931, it decided whether to issue to investors T or D certificates; it received for the Title Company the proceeds of sale of certificates and delivered certificates to investors after they were executed by Title Company officers. The only part taken by the Title Company in the allocation of mortgages to certificates was to execute the participation certificates as prepared by the Trust Company. Prior to January 12th, 1931, it was the custom of the Trust Company, through its card system, to allocate certain series or groups of mortgages to particular certificates, but after that date the custom apparently was abandoned and all mortgages were treated as a single group against which all T certificates were allocated. It does not appear that any purchaser of a blue or T certificate bargained for a certificate against any particular group or series of mortgages, or knew or inquired ás to what group or series the certificates sold him would apply and it is to be noted that neither the blue nor the T certificates specify or identify any particular series or group, but speak generally of bonds and mortgages deposited with the trustee. D certificates were issued only to purchasers who expressed a wish for participation in some single mortgage and in no instance when a D certificate was issued did any purchaser choose a particular mortgage; he accepted what the Trust Company chose for him.

[8]*81. As I have said, the D certificates are identical in language with the blue and T certificates, except that words were added to the D certificates to describe a particular mortgage. Without mentioning the provisions contained in the D certificates, I think it sufficient to say that any purchaser of one of those certificates who read it, should at once observe that the expressions therein contained were inapplicable to a single mortgage, but applied to a group of mortgages.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
176 A. 93, 13 N.J. Misc. 4, 1934 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-steneck-title-mortgage-guaranty-co-njch-1934.