Frash v. Glendy

68 Ind. 364
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1879
StatusPublished

This text of 68 Ind. 364 (Frash v. Glendy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frash v. Glendy, 68 Ind. 364 (Ind. 1879).

Opinion

Howk, C. J.

This was a suit by the appellant, against the appellees, to obtain a perpetual injunction. The appellees answered the appellant’s complaint by a general denial thereof. The cause was tried by the court and a finding was made for the appellees; and the appellaut’s motion for a new trial having been overruled, and his exception [365]*365saved to this ruling, the court rendered judgment dissolving the temporary injunction before that time granted in this case, and against the appellant, for the appellees’ costs.

The only alleged error complained of by the appellant in this court is the overruling of his motion for a new trial.

In his complaint the appellant alleged, in substance, that in the year 1854, and prior thereto, certain persons subscribed for stock in the Fort Wayne and Southern Railroad Company, and paid for such stock by conveying real estate to said company, among which real estate was lot number 3, in block 2, in the town of Hartford City, in Blackford county, Indiana, then owned by the appellant; that afterward the said railroad company conveyed the said lands, by deed of trust ®r mortgage, to one John D. Defrees, as trustee, to secure the payment of certain bonds issued by said company, a copy of which mortgage was filed with and made part of said complaint; that it was provided in said mortgage, that any person desiring so to do might enter any of said lands at the office of said company, and that the moneys received by said company for such lands so purchased should, by the company, by and with the advice of said trustee, be invested in a suitable manner and become a sinking fund for the payment of said bonds, and that, when the said lands should he so sold, they should he wholly discharged from the lien of said mortgage ; that the appellant, and those under whom he claimed title to the above described lot, did, in good faith, purchase the same by entry, as provided in said mortgage, and paid for the same to said company, and received a deed therefor; that, under said purchase, the appellant, and those under whom he had claimed, had since held an undisputed possession of said lot for more than twenty years since the date of said purchase, and they and he had made valuable ar.d lasting improvements thereon; that after[366]*366ward, at the-term, 1877, of the said Blackford Circuit Court, the appellee Glendy recovered a judgment of foreclosure of said mortgage as against said Defrees, trustee, etc., for one thousand dollars and the accrued interest thei’eon, with costs of suit, on one of the said bonds which said Glendy claimed to own and to be unpaid, which said judgment ordered and directed that the appellant’s said lot should be sold to make said judgment and costs ; that neither the appellant nor those under whom he claimed were made parties to said foreclosure suit, nor had he or they any notice thereof; that the appellee Glendy had caused an execution to be issued on his said judgment and placed in the hands of his co-appellee, Saxon, sheriff of said county, who had levied the same on the appellant’s said lot and had advertised the same for sale under said writ, to make said judgment and costs, and, if not restrained from so doing, the appellees would sell said lot for the purpose aforesaid ; and that, by such sale of said lot, the appellant would suffer irreparable loss and injury. Wherefore, etc.

The only causes for a new trial assigned by the appellant in his motion therefor were, that the finding of the court was not sustained by the evidence, and that it was contrary to law.

On the trial of the cause, the appellant gave in evidence the mortgage or deed of trust, executed by the Eort Wayne and Southern Railroad .Company to John D. Defrees as trustee, on the 13th day of June, 1854, and recorded in the recorder’s office of said Blackford county on the 24th day of June, 1854, and a deed dated on the 15th day of'February, 1861, and duly executed and acknowledged by said railroad company, whereby the said company conveyed and warranted to one Newton A. Bass, in fee-simple, among other property, the said lot described in the appellant’s complaint, which latter deed was recorded in said [367]*367recorders’ office on the 22d day of January, 1862. In addition to this written evidence, the appellees admitted on the trial that the real estate described in the appellant’s complaint “was conveyed by deed of warranty by Emily Bass, widow of said Newton A. Bass, who had before then died, and said Emily Bass had become the owner in fee of said lot by inheritance from said Newton A. Bass, to Stephen-H. Devore, who', by like deed, conveyed the same to the plaintiff, John Frash, who holds and claims to own the same under and by virtue of said conveyances.” The appellees introduced no evidence whatever on the trial, and the appellant gave no other evidence.

From this statement of the appellant’s case, it will be readily seen, we think, that the question as to whether the court did or did not err in overruling his motion for a new trial, must depend for its proper decision upon the answer that must be given to another question, and that is, whether or not the court gave a right construction to the mortgage or deed of trust, and to the deed to Newton A. Bass given in evidence by the appellant. For if, by fair construction of these two written instruments, it can he correctly said that they afforded prima facie evidence that Newton A. Bass had thereby and thereunder acquired the legal title in fee-simple to the lot in controversy, free from the lien of said mortgage, then it must follow that the finding of the court ought to have been for the appellant, as prayed for in his complaint, and that the court erred in overruling his motion for a new trial. This view of the question, and we think it is the correct one, renders it necessary that we should examine and consider each of these two written instruments, to the end that we may arrive at the true legal import and effect thereof respectively ; and, in so doing, we will first consider those provisions of the mortgage or deed of trust, which have an apparent bearing on the question under consideration.

[368]*368In this instrument it was first recited that the said railroad company had “received upon subscription to the capital stock of said company real estate of the value of three hundred thousand dollars and, in a second recital, it was stated that said company proposed “to make said real estate available in the construction of said road by a sale of its bonds of the denomination of one thousand dollars each,’’particularly describing- such bonds, “with agreement” of said railroad company “to deed in fee-simple, with warranty, to the holder of any of said bonds, when he may elect to receive the same, at any time within five years from the date thereof, one thousand dollars’ worth of the real estate,” covered by said mortgage, “at such sale prices, not less than four-fifths of the appraised value, as may be fixed” by said railroad company, “from time to time, upon the surrender of said bonds and the unpaid interest -warrants to the treasurer” of said company. After these two recitals, the said railroad company, “in order to secure the payment of said bonds and interest, and in consideration of the sum of one dollar, at the sealing and delivery” of said deed, “in hand paid” by said John D. Defrees, trustee did thereby “grant, bargain, sell, transfer and convey” to the said Defrees, trustee, and “his successors in the trust thereby created,” all the said real estate covered by the said mortgage.

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Bluebook (online)
68 Ind. 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frash-v-glendy-ind-1879.