Gadsden v. Thrush

45 L.R.A. 654, 78 N.W. 632, 58 Neb. 340, 1899 Neb. LEXIS 177
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 22, 1899
DocketNo. 8315
StatusPublished

This text of 45 L.R.A. 654 (Gadsden v. Thrush) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gadsden v. Thrush, 45 L.R.A. 654, 78 N.W. 632, 58 Neb. 340, 1899 Neb. LEXIS 177 (Neb. 1899).

Opinion

Ryan, C.

In this case a rehearing was granted the appellees William H. Sumner and the Schuyler National Bank. The opinion originally filed is reported in 56 Neb. 565, and therein will be found a general description of the relation of the parties and the pleadings filed by each. The present inquiry is with relation to the issues under which Sumner and the Schuyler National Bank seek relief, and accordingly we shall confine ourselves to the pleadings wherewith these parties are concerned. In his cross-petition William H. Sumner alleged that on August 8, 1890, The defendants George Thrush and Charles Thrush were indebted to the Schuyler National Bank in the sum of' $5,000, evidenced by their promissory note to said bank; that said note was renewed from time to time, and on March 31,1894, there remained due the sum of $3,229, for which amount George Thrush gave his promissory note to the bank, due 180 days after its date, and that no part of this note had been paid. It was further alleged by Sumner that on August 8, 1890, George Thrush and Mattie Thrush executed to him their promissory note for the sum'of $5,000, due two years after date, with ten per cent interest per annum, payable annually, and that to secure the said note the makers of said note made a mortgage on certain described real property, which said mortgage was duly filed for record. In his said cross-petition Will: iam H. Sumner made the following averments: “This defendant further alleges that the note and mortgage so as aforesaid executed and delivered by the defendants [342]*342George Thrush and Mattie Thrush were executed and delivered to him as trustee for the use and benefit of the Schuyler National Bank and to secure the indebtedness of said Thrush to said bank; that said debt so secured on the 8th day of August, 1890, by said mortgage deed was a debt previously contracted; that said mortgage was made in good faith and in the name of this defendant for the benefit of said Schuyler, National Bank. No proceedings at law have been had for the recovery of the debt secured by said mortgage, or any part thereof, and there is now due from the defendants George Thrush and Mattie N. Thrush to this defendant, for the use and benefit of the Schuyler National Bank, the sum of $3,229 and interest at ten per cent from September 27, 1894.” The prayer of the petition of Sumner was that an account might be taken of the amount due on said note and mortgage; that the priority of liens might be determined and the lien of other defendants declared inferior to that of Sumner, and that said George Thrush and Mattie N. Thrush might be foreclosed of all equity of redemption or other interest in the premises mortgaged; that said premises might be sold according to law, and out of the proceeds thereof that the lien-holders might be paid the amount adjudged to be due them in the order of their priority; that the defendants George Thrush and Mattie Thrush might be adjudged to pay any deficiency which might remain after applying the proceeds of said sale to the payment of said debts, and for such other relief as might be just and equitable. Later the Schuyler National Bank was allowed to become a party to the litigation, and filed a cross-petition alleging substantially the same facts, and, on behalf of itself and Sumner, praying like relief with that above described as the prayer of Sumner. The defendants George Thrush and Mattie N. Thrush, in separate answers, admitted the making of the promissory note for $5,000 and of the mortgage securing the same on August 8,1890, but denied every other allegation of the petition.of Sumner, In addition they [343]*343averred that said note and mortgage were made to Sumner as part of a usurious transaction; that the same were-held by Sumner as collateral security to usurious loans from time to time renewed at usurious rates, as in the answer more particularly described. Each successive usurious loan at twelve per cent per annum interest was described in a distinct paragraph, and these paragraphs were twenty-four in number. The first paragraph described a loan on August 9, 1889, and the twenty-fourth paragraph described the history of the note of $3,229, of date March 31, 1894. There was, therefore, a continuous chain of usurious transactions extending over the entire period between August 9, 1889 and March 31, 1894, and the relief sought was the application of the payments of interest on the sum in satisfaction of which the foreclosure was prayed. By reply Sumner denied the averments of the eleventh paragraph of the answer of each of the defendants Thrush, and the other paragraphs of his reply, substituting the appropriate figures to express the proper number referred to in each instance, were as follows: “That the interest payment mentioned in paragraph 10 of said answer was made to the Schuyler National Bank more than two years before the commencement of this action, and the consideration thereof in this action is barred by law.” The reply of Sumner closed with this language: “He further says this court has no jurisdiction in this action to consider the questions raised in said answer as to each and every item of interest mentioned in said answer as paid to said Schuyler National Bank; that said items are not proper items to set-off or counterclaim, and cannot be adjudicated except in a suit brought expressly for that purpose under the provisions of section 5198 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.” On the trial there was a decree of foreclosure, in which there was a finding of usury in the note of $3,229 to the amount of $229, and the defendants George Thrush and Mattie N. Thrush were denied their costs; in other words, the district court held that the statute of limitations and costs [344]*344were governed by the federal statute relating to national banks, and not by section 5, chapter 44, of the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska.- The correctness of this ruling is the question presented by this appeal.

In the former opinion it was pointed out that the taking of real estate security for the loan of money constitutes no defense to a foreclosure; hence the citation of authorities on behalf of the bank to that proposition was not necessary. It was further pointed out in that opinion that the government might complain, and upon this proposition it is noticeable that the bank has cited no authorities and has made no argument. There was, in view of the last consideration named, an incentive to the bank to take the security upon real property as it did in this instance, so that it might appear upon the face of the note and mortgage that the bank originally had not been a party thereto, if the governmental authorities’ should insist upon a strict compliance with the provisions of the federal statute forbidding the taking of a real estate mortgage except in certain cases, in which that under consideration is not included. In Norfolk Nat. Bank v. Schwenk, 46 Neb. 381, Norval, C. J,, quoted "as of binding force upon this court the following language of Swayne, J., in Farmers & Merchants Nat. Bank v. Dearing, 1 Otto [U. S.] 29: “The national banks organized under the act are instruments designed to be used to aid the government in the administration of an important branch of the public service. They are means appropriate to that end. Of the degree of the necessity which existed for creating them,- congress is the sole-judge. Being such means, brought into existence for this purpose, and intended to be so employed, the states can exercise no control over them, nor in anywise affect their operation, except in so far as congress may see proper to per-. mit.

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Related

Norfolk National Bank v. P. Schwenk & Co.
64 N.W. 1073 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1895)
Gadsden v. Thrush
76 N.W. 1060 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1898)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
45 L.R.A. 654, 78 N.W. 632, 58 Neb. 340, 1899 Neb. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gadsden-v-thrush-neb-1899.