Gammon v. Bull

53 N.W. 340, 86 Iowa 754
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 24, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 53 N.W. 340 (Gammon v. Bull) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gammon v. Bull, 53 N.W. 340, 86 Iowa 754 (iowa 1892).

Opinion

Robinson, C. J.

Two of the four notes upon which this action was brought were given on the third, day of June, 1889, by the defendant, George H. Bull, to the defendant O. W. Carpenter, for the sum of one hundred and sixty-six dollars each, with interest thereon at ten per cent, per annum. One was payable on the first day of September, and the other on the first day of January, after their date, and both were secured by a chattel mortgage. The notes were assigned without recourse by Carpenter to the plaintiff, and the mortgage transferred, about the thirtieth day of August, 1889. The notes are unpaid, excepting the sum of ninety-five dollars, paid on the one first due on the twentieth day of February, 1890. On the twenty-first day of August 1889,’Bull made to the'Cutter & Proctor Stove Company his two notes for one hundred and four dollars each, payable one year after their date, with interest at the rate of ten per cent, per annum. Those notes aie now owned by the plaintiff, and are unpaid. On the twentieth day of February, 1890, Bull gave to the plaintiff, to secure the payment of the four notes described, a mortgage on certain personal property, including "a two-thirds interest in the crops, of whatever kind, to be raised or grown upon the southwest quarter of section 24, Newton township, Carroll county, Iowa, during the season of 1890.” The plaintiff demands the foreclosure of the two mortgages described. The defendants allege that the second mortgage is void, because executed under duress, and claim that the defendant Martha, wife of George H. Bull, leased the premises described for the year 1890, and that her husband had no interest whatever in the crops raised thereon in that year. The defendant Carpenter claims a landlord’s lien upon the crops for the year named. He also claims liens superior to those of the plaintiff upon a portion of the property in controversy under chattel mortgage notes executed thereon, and recorded as follows: One dated December 15, 1888, to secure the payment of one hundred dollars and interest at ten per cent., due on the fifteenth day of December, 1889; one dated August 21, 1889, to secure the payment of one hundred and thirty-two dollars and fifty cents and interest at ten per cent., due November 1, 1890; one dated October 7, 1889, to secure the payment of sixty dollars and interest at ten per cent., payable on the same date. . But a small part of these notes has been paid. The district court found and adjudged that the crops of 1890 belonged to Mrs. Bull., that the mortgage taken by the plaintiff was subject to any claim which Carpenter had in the property mortgaged; and that his three mortgages were senior to that taken by the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff, under his mortgage, had liens senior to all the claims of the defendants upon certain property specified. Judg-" ment was rendered in favor of the .plaintiff and against Bull for five hundred and eight dollars and twenty-seven cents and attorney’s fees and costs, and in favor of Carpenter, and against Bull, on the three mortgage notes for two hundred and eighty-seven dollars and fifteen eents and an "attorney’s fee taxed at-dollars.” The foreclosure of the respective mortgages was also decreed. The defense of duress, pleaded to the mortgage of February 20, 1890, was necessarily found not to have been established, and, as the defendants do not. appeal, will not be further considered.

[756]*756I. The mortgage assigned by Carpenter to the plaintiff included the crops for the year 1889 on the southwest quarter of section 24, in Newton township, Carroll county, Iowa. The appellant complains of the decree because it does not foreclose the mortgage as to such crops. The evidence shows that oats and corn were raised on the premises for the year specified, but it also shows that the same have been sold, fed or seeded, and that none of it remained when the trial was had in the district court. It would have been a vain thing to decree a foreclosure as to property which had ceased to exist.

II. The land described is owned by Carpenter, and was occupied and farmed by Bull, under a lease from Carpenter, during the years 1888 and 1889. In the fall of the last-named year Bull plowed a portion of the land for the crops of 1890. He and his family remained upon the farm until the seventh day of April, 1890, when Carpenter insisted upon making a lease to Mrs. Bull for the place. The lease was accepted, and it is claimed that the farm was carried on thereafter by Mrs. Bull. Carpenter claims that he never leased the farm to Bull for the year 1890, but we think the preponderance of the evidence shows that he did so lease it, although he coupled with the lease a condition that the crops should not be mortgaged. When the lease of April 7, 1890, was given, nothing had been planted for that year, although a part of the ground was ready for seeding with oats. A few days after the lease was given that part of the farm was seeded with oats from the crop of 1889, upon which the plaintiff had a mortgage. The oats were so used with the permission of the plaintiff, although without doubt he expected that his second mortgage would become a lien upon the crop to be grown from them. The course of Bull and his wife, if voluntary, and considered alone, might be regarded as fraudulent, and for the purpose of hindering and delaying the plaintiff, but the lease to Mrs. Bull was not made by their request, nor at their suggestion. Carpenter appears to have insisted upon it for reasons personal to himself. Bull had at the time acquired certain rights as tenant at will, but he acquiesced in the lease to his wife, and thereby surrendered any right he held to retain possession of the premises. As he had no right to the crops raised on the farm for the year 1890, the plaintiff acquired no interest therein by virtue of his mortgage.

III. The appellant'attacks the three mortgage notes of Carpenter on the ground that the descriptions therein contained are so defective that the record thereof does not impart constructive notice of the mortgagee’s interest; and the further obj eetion is made to one of the mortgages that t'he notary who took the acknowledgment failed to authenticate his certificate with his official seal. . The mortgages are shown to have been duly executed, and they were good as b etween the parties to them and as against all who had due notice of them. Clapp v. Trowbridge, 74 Iowa, 550; Plano Mfg. Co. v. Griffith, 75 Iowa, 102; American Well Works v. Whinery, 76 Iowa, 400. The description of the property included in the mortgage of February 20, 1890, closes with the following: “Also all increase in the above-described stock, subject to the rights of Orrin Carpenter.” The evidence shows that at the time the mortgage was executed there was [757]*757some conversation between the plaintiff and Bull in regard to a mortgage held by Carpenter on some of the property which the plaintiff wished to have included in the mortgage, and Bull ob j eeted to including it, for fear he might become criminally liable for so doing. There was some dispute in regard to what was said as to the property mortgaged to Carpenter, the appellant contending that but two cows were mentioned. He states that Bull told him he had two cows and a calf; that he did not think there was any mortgage on the calf, but was not sure, and thought there was a mortgage on one of the cows, and perhaps on both; that the plaintiffs told Bull, if he would include the cows in the mortgage, a clause should be inserted making it subject to the rights of Carpenter.

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Bluebook (online)
53 N.W. 340, 86 Iowa 754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gammon-v-bull-iowa-1892.