Gilchrist v. Foxen

70 N.W. 585, 95 Wis. 428, 1897 Wisc. LEXIS 209
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 16, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 70 N.W. 585 (Gilchrist v. Foxen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gilchrist v. Foxen, 70 N.W. 585, 95 Wis. 428, 1897 Wisc. LEXIS 209 (Wis. 1897).

Opinion

Cassoday, C. J.

1. The deed from the mother (Magdalena) to her daughter (Augustina), delivered and recorded August 31, 1885, contains provisions that it was given in consideration of the payment by the daughter of the prior mortgage on the premises of $150, and the support by her of her mother, “in good manner during her lifetime, and decent burial when dead.” Such being the express provisions of the deed so on record, it is very obvious that every person acquiring any right, title, or interest in the. premises, from, through, or under the daughter, or her husband, or both, by deed, mortgage, or otherwise, necessarily took and received the same subject to those provisions contained in the deed. Schwallbach v. C., M. & St. P. R. Co. 69 Wis. 292. It was there held that the recording of a deed is constructive notice of its existence and contents to all subsequent purchasers of the land, and renders them subject to whatever covenants therein run with the land.”

2. It necessarily follows that the two mortgages executed by the daughter and her husband to the plaintiff were both subject to such provisions in the deed. This being so, the foreclosure of such mortgages by this plaintiff (did not have the effect to cut off, nor in any way impair, such paramount rights secured to and reserved by Magdalena in her deed to her daughter, notwithstanding she was made a defendant in such foreclosure suit. Strobe v. Downer, 13 Wis. 10; Straight v. Harris, 14 Wis. 509. There is nothing in the record to show and there is no claim that the complaint in the foreclosure suit made any attack upon such prior and superior [436]*436right of Magdalena, so secured and reserved in her deed. The service upon her was by publication, and she did not answer nor appear in the case. The statute declares, in effect, that, upon such foreclosure and sale and the confirmation thereof, the sheriff’s deed “ shall vest in the purchaser all the right, title, and interest of the mortgagor, his heirs, personal representatives, and assigns, in and to the premises sold, and shall be a bar to all claim, right, or equity of redemption therein, of and against the parties to such action, their heirs and personal representatives, and also against all persons claiming under them subsequent to the filing of the notice of the pendency of the action in which such judgment was rendered.” R. S. sec. 3169. This statute “must be understood as referring to such rights and interests as were or might properly have been litigated in the foreclosure action.” Pelton v. Farmin, 18 Wis. 222. The result.of the decisions of this court is to the effect that a defendant’s prior and paramount right or title to the mortgaged premises cannot be properly determined in a foreclosure suit. The object of a foreclosure suit is not to try the titles alleged to be paramount to that of the mortgagor. If the party made, defendant, as claiming some interest subsequent to the mortgage, claims no such interest, he should disclaim, and the suit should be dismissed as to him. The setting up of a paramount title by such defendant is no answer to .the allegations made against him; and, if the plaintiff does not choose to litigate such alleged title in the foreclosure suit, he may properly raise the objection by demurrer. Pelton v. Farmin, 18 Wis. 222; Roberts v. Wood, 38 Wis. 60; Hekla F. Ins. Co. v. Morrison, 56 Wis. 133; Cook v. Goodyear, 79 Wis. 611. From these authorities it is very clear that, even had such provisions in the deed been fully complied with, yet that the defendant Foxen would not, by virtue of such sheriff’s deed, have acquired any of such prior and paramount right and [437]*437title so secured and reserved to Magdalena in her deed to her daughter, unless he acquired the same by virtue of a merger of the title hereinafter to be considered.

3. But it stands admitted that such provisions in her deed were never complied with. On the contrary, neither the daughter, nor her husband, nor any one in their behalf, ever paid any part of the outstanding note and mortgage of $150 upon the premises, which, by the terms of the deed, they were to pay as a part of the consideration for the purchase; and so, August 3, 1889, the daughter and her husband, with the knowledge and acquiescence of the mother, conveyed away a portion of the land for the purpose of making such payment. In other words, they were thereby permitted to use a part of the land to pay such debt, and thereby diminish and lessen the security reserved in the deed from Magdalena to her daughter, without parting with anything of any value which they had not so received from the mother. In addition to such failure to pay that mortgage, it appears from the record that after the daughter had been dead for a year, and in October, 1891, the son-in-law, who had become badly indebted, sold and converted all his personal property into money and absconded from the state, leaving Magdalena the sole occupant of the premises and the dwelling house thereon; that after she had remained in the sole possession of the premises for two months, and in a destitute condition, and compelled to rely upon the charity of her neighbors for support, she was, in February, 1892, compelled to go and live with relatives in Chicago; that the plaintiff, finding the premises vacant and unoccupied, took possession in April, 1892, and placed a tenant in charge thereof; that, about a month after that, Magda-, lena returned from Chicago and demanded possession from such tenant, and the plaintiff, under the advice of counsel as to her prior and superior rights under her deed, surrendered such possession to Magdalena, and caused his tenant. [438]*438feo attorn to and pay rent to her from that time down to November, 1892; that, pursuant to the advice of her counsel (who was the same person who subsequently bid in the premises on the foreclosure sale in the name of thé defendant Foxen), Magdalena did, November 5, 1892, commence the action mentioned in the foregoing statement, to divest all claim of right, title, or interest of any of the defendants therein, including this plaintiff; that November 16, 1892, Magdalena, under advice of her said counsel, settled that suit with the plaintiff, by his giving her $300, for which she gave him a warranty deed of the premises, and surrendered the possession thereof to him, as stated.

The question recurs whether the clause in the deed from Magdalena to her daughter, mentioned, was a condition subsequent, and, if so, whether such failures to perform, and such absconding of her son-in-law, and her exclusive possession for two months in 1892 and six months in 1893, and the suit to enforce her title as owner, and the settlement of the same, as mentioned, operated to reinvest the legal title to the property in her, the same as it was before she conveyed to her daughter. It will be observed that the deed of August 31, 1885, from Magdalena to her daughter, was not signed by the daughter, nor by any one but Magdalena. Nor does it contain any agreement on the part of the daughter to support her mother during her life, or for any time, or to bury her when dead. Nor does it contain any agreement on the part of the daughter, unless it may be said that, by accepting the deed, she assumed the payment of the $150 mortgage therein mentioned; but that can hardly be claimed, since it is merely mentioned as part of the consideration. The case is therefore distinguishable in this respect from Bogie v. Bogie, 41 Wis. 209; Bresnahan v. Bresnahan, 46 Wis. 385; Morgan v. Loomis, 78 Wis.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Daughtry v. MPC Systems, Inc.
2004 WI App 70 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2004)
Bass v. Fillion
181 F.3d 859 (Seventh Circuit, 1999)
Moffatt v. Moffatt
1945 OK 185 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1945)
Nadler v. Nadler
8 N.W.2d 306 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1943)
Kroening v. Kroening
269 N.W. 536 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1936)
Knutson v. Anderson
255 N.W. 907 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1934)
Kidder v. Pueschner
247 N.W. 315 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1933)
Carisch v. Lund
218 N.W. 826 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1928)
Empress Theatre Co. v. Horton
266 F. 657 (Eighth Circuit, 1920)
First Nat. Bank v. McIntosh
79 So. 121 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1918)
Dickerman Investment Co. v. Oliver Iron Mining Co.
160 N.W. 776 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1916)
Greenya v. Reliance Security Co.
154 N.W. 972 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1915)
Mash v. Bloom
110 N.W. 203 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1907)
Keller v. Fenske
101 N.W. 378 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1905)
Glocke v. Glocke
57 L.R.A. 458 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1902)
Maginnis v. Knickerbocker Ice Co.
69 L.R.A. 833 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1901)
Hill v. Buffington
82 N.W. 712 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1900)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 N.W. 585, 95 Wis. 428, 1897 Wisc. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilchrist-v-foxen-wis-1897.