German v. Gilbert

83 Mo. App. 411, 1900 Mo. App. LEXIS 186
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 5, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 83 Mo. App. 411 (German v. Gilbert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
German v. Gilbert, 83 Mo. App. 411, 1900 Mo. App. LEXIS 186 (Mo. Ct. App. 1900).

Opinion

SMITH, P. J.

This is an action to recover damages on account of the breach of a verbal contract. The allegations of the petition were: (1) That one, Bean, executed to defendant Gilbert, agent for the other defendant, a chattel mortgage upon certain furniture in the Normandy Hotel to secure the payment of a promissory note for $791.51. (2) That Bean executed to plaintiff, as trustee, a deed of trust covering the property specified in the said chattel mortgage, previously executed to defendant Gilbert, to secure two notes, one to the Midland National Bank for $552.38 and the other to Mrs. Jenney for $2,448.20. (3) That on May 5, 1897, the defendant advertised said property for sale under said chattel mortgage and seven days thereafter entered into an agreement with plaintiff to the effect, first, that the -defendant would proceed to sell said mortgaged property in accordance with said advertisement-, and at said -sale it should be- bid in by the defendant, The Home Industrial Company, in its name, provided an outside purchaser could not be induced to bid the reasonable value of said property and if so bid, then in the [414]*414event of a re-sale such re-sale should be for the joint benefit of the mortgage deed of trust beneficiaries, so that plaintiff would be entitled to receive any excess arising from such resale above the amount of the said mortgage debt; second, that if said property was so purchased by the defendant Home Industrial Company that it should not be re-sold by it without the consent of plaintiff and the beneficiaries under said deed of trust, and that no proposition should be accepted by the former until submitted to the latter, and a reasonable opportunity afforded such latter to secure either a purchaser at a higher price, or to take said property at an advance over the proposition submitted; third, that in consideration of the promise and agreement made by the defendants, the plaintiff and said beneficiaries were to make a diligent effort to find a purchaser who would bid in said property at said mortgagee’s sale ¡at the reasonable value thereof. (4) That said property was sold under said mortgage and, in accordance with said agreement, was bid in by the defendant Home Industrial Company at a nominal sum. (5) That plaintiff and said beneficiaries thereafter made strenuous efforts to sell said property, stating in what respect they did so, and procured a purchaser who was willing to pay for said property a sum in excess of said mortgage debt, but that the defendants refused said offer and for the purpose of injuring and defrauding plaintiff and said beneficiaries,- and in violation of said agreement, secretly sold said property for the alleged sum of $700. (G) That said property at the time of the said re-sale thereof was of the value of three thousand dollars. (7) That by reason of the failure of defendants to carry out said agreement damages were claimed by plaintiff in the sum of $2,300, and for which judgment was demanded.

The agreement pleaded discloses it to have been the intention of the parties thereto that if at the foreclosure sale of the mortgaged property no one bid the alleged reason-able [415]*415value thereoi that then one or the other of the defendants should bid it in so that a disposition more favorable to the claims of the beneficiaries in both instruments could thereafter be made. It was impliedly agreed that the plaintiff, in consideration of the promise of the defendants, would not. bid at said sale at all. The right given defendant to bid in the property necessarily implied that plaintiff was not to bid. In contemplation of the agreement, only defendant and strangers were to bid. -The intention of the parties, no doubt, was to foreclose Bean’s equity of redemption and thus get the title to the property in a condition that would facilitate the sale of it on terms inore favorable to the beneficiaries.

The sale, of course, cut off Bean’s equity of redemption. But what- relation, if any, did the plaintiff, in his quality as trustee, sustain to the property after the foreclosure sale and purchase by the Home Industrial Company? But for the agreement his interest as junior mortgagee would have been foreclosed. His interest, under the agreement, survived the foreclosure sale, or, if it did not, it re-attached the instant the title passed to defendant under the foreclosure sale. The interest of the plaintiff after the sale was not different from what it was before the sale. The property was held by defendant as a security for the payment, first, of its own debt- and then, next, that of the other beneficiaries. The jus disponendi was restricted and 'hampered by the agreement. The title acquired by the defendant at the foreclosure sale was impressed with the agreement. Hnder the agreement a re-sale could not be made without the consent of the plaintiff. In case defendant had an offer for the property he was required to submit that to plaintiff and if not satisfactory plaintiff had a right to take it at a greater price and thereby prevent a sacrifice of it to his injury. His relation to the property was improved by the agreement. His position now was better than that occupied by him before the foreclosure [416]*416sale. The defendant had paid nothing for the property. He held it under the agreement and could not dispose of it without giving the plaintiff notice, and in that way cut off the plaintiff’s option to purchase himself. It will not do to say therefore that the plaintiff, under the agreement, had no- interest in the - property.

But the defendant contends that the agreement pleaded is a nudum, padum, and therefore it is not bound by it. The general rule is, that in order to support an action the promise must have been made upon legal consideration moving from the promisee to the promissor; there must be either a benefit to the maker of the promise or the waiver of some legal right, a loss, trouble or inconvenience to, or a charge or obligation resting upon the party to whom the promise is made. Givens v. Corse, 20 Mo. App. 132; Brownlow v. Wollard, 66 Mo. App. 636; Houck v. Frisbee, 66 Mo. App. 16; Block v. Elliott, 1 Mo. 215; Halsa v. Halsa, 8 Mo. 303; Hudson v. Busby, 48 Mo. 35; Williams v. Jenson, 75 Mo. 681; Beach on Contr., sec. 5 and note 1. Consideration means not so much that one part is profited as that the -other abandons same legal right in the present, or limits his legal freedom of action in the future as an inducement for the act or promise for the first. It does not matter whether the party accepting the consideration has any actual benefit thereby or not- — it is enough that he accepts it and that the party giving it does thereby undertake some burden or lose something which in contemplation of law may be of value. Webb’s Pollock on Contr., 167. It is well settled that a promise is a sufficient consideration for a promise. Moss v. Green, 41 Mo. 389; Lindell v. Rokes, 60 Mo. 249. A promise to do a thing is just as valuable a consideration as the actual doing of it would be. The promises to constitute a consideration for each other must be concurrent or become binding at the same time, otherwise each will be without consideration at the time it is made and both must be nuda pada.

[417]*417In bilateral contracts- — that is, where the -consideration for a promise is a promise- — -the whole agreement may be intended by the parties to be contingent and to come into-effect only at the will of one of the parties.

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Bluebook (online)
83 Mo. App. 411, 1900 Mo. App. LEXIS 186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/german-v-gilbert-moctapp-1900.