Hagen v. Dwyer

162 N.W. 699, 36 N.D. 346, 1917 N.D. LEXIS 199
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 24, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 162 N.W. 699 (Hagen v. Dwyer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hagen v. Dwyer, 162 N.W. 699, 36 N.D. 346, 1917 N.D. LEXIS 199 (N.D. 1917).

Opinion

Birdzell, J.

Separate actions were brought for the foreclosure of two chattel mortgages. One Green intervened in both actions, and. asked for the foreclosure of a thresher’s lien and a chattel mortgage held by him. The actions were consolidated and resulted in the foreclosure of the Green lien and mortgage and in the entry of judgment against the defendant for the amount of plaintiff’s claim and for a deficiency in favor of the intervener. From this judgment the plaintiff appeals, claiming that his mortgage is prior to the liens of the intervener. The facts are as follows: On January 28th, 1915, the •defendant, Dwyer, executed and delivered to the plaintiff, Hagen, a promissory note for $500 and a chattel mortgage securing the same. The .mortgage described the note and in addition contained the following recital of consideration: “This chattel mortgage being made and accepted upon the express condition that the mortgagee shall furnish and supply to the mortgagor, at the current market retail prices and on credit, general merchandise of the value of five hundred ($500) dollars, such credit for merchandise being payable at the same time with the note herein described.”

The foregoing was filled in with a typewriter, and the following is a part of the printed form: “It is agreed, that this instrument shall he •construed as covering and securing any and all additional indebtedness which the first party may contract to the second party, at any time ■during the life of this mortgage.”

The mortgage purported to cover a crop to be grown during the year 1915 upon land described as follows: “One hundred (100) acres lying in the northiuest part of the northiuest quarter of section No. 28, Township No. 141, Range No. 54.”

On March 9th, 1915, Dwyer executed a written guaranty in favor -of Hagen by which he guaranteed the payment of an amount not to [350]*350exceed $225; covering an existing indebtedness of, and future advances-to, one Joseph Brosche, an employee of Dwyer.

On September 4th, 1915, Dwyer gave Hagen another note and mortgage for $150. This mortgage covered “25 acres of wheat south of the-north 100 acres of section 28.”

On September 13, 1915, Dwyer gave a note and mortgage to the intervener, Green, for $1,850.40, the mortgage covering the crop on the-west half of section 28.

On October 30th, 1915, Green filed a thresher’s lien claiming $385.

There are some minor facts which will be stated later in this opinion,, as they become material to a consideration of the legal questions arising upon the foregoing facts and to a review of the findings of the learned trial judge, which are challenged in the appellant’s specification of errors.

The main argument of the appellant is in support of the specification predicated upon the finding that the plaintiff’s mortgages are void because of their failure to describe the property intended to be covered? In both of plaintiff’s mortgages the descriptions are so vague as to cover no particular property to the exclusion of other property of the same nature. It follows from this that the mortgages are necessarily void, unless upon reference to the extrinsic evidence touching the acreage and character of the crops grown by the mortgagor it is made to appear that the descriptions employed are applicable to certain property and to no other. A careful examination of the record discloses an unsatisfactory condition of the proof with reference to the' cropping of the northwest quarter of section 23 during the year in question. It is undisputed that there were grown upon'the westerly side of this quarter 108 acres of wheat, but there is no evidence as to-what was grown upon the remainder of the tract, although it further appears that there were 110 acres of rye upon the west half of the section, and that there were some 28 acres of wheat upon the southwest quarter. This unsatisfactory state of the record renders it necessary for us to consider the effect of the description in the first, mortgage,, both upon the theory that the fact is, as stated by counsel for appellant,, that the whole of the northwest quarter was sown to crop, about 108-acres being sown to wheat and the remaining portion to rye, and upon the hypothesis that there were but 108 acres of crop upon the quarter [351]*351in question. Upon the first hypothesis, assumed for the purpose of this-discussion, it is difficult to see how the faulty description in the mortgage, purporting to cover the crop to be grown upon the 100 acres, lying in the northwest part of the quarter section, was in any way aided by the evidence aliunde. Disregarding the extrinsic facts as .to the cropping of the land, it is manifest that the description refers to no-defined parcel, and that it might be satisfied by any one of numberless tracts. The fundamental vice in the description consists in the failure-to employ terms appropriate to define a given subdivision or definite fraction of one. The authorities clearly establish that a description of’ this character is so indefinite and vague as to render the mortgage void, particularly as to subsequent purchasers and creditors. In the case of Wattles v. Cobb, 60 Neb. 403, 83 Am. St. Rep. 537, 83 N. W. 195, the description purported to cover certain crops, including 340 acres-of corn to be grown upon certain described lands. There were grown upon the lands described 425 acres of com, and it was held that the-description was so faulty as to invalidate the mortgage. In Walter A. Wood Mowing & Reaping Mach. Co. v. Minneapolis & N. Elevator Co. 48 Minn. 404, 51 N. W. 378, the following description, “40 acres of' wheat on the N. E. 1? section 4, T. 161, R. 76,” was held too indefinite-where it appeared that there were 75 acres of wheat seeded on the-quarter section described. See also 5 R. C. L. 427, and Jones, Chat. Mortg. 5th ed. § 55a.

Counsel for appellant has cited authorities holding descriptions sufficient where the parcels or subdivisions have not been clearly defined,, but in all such cases there were descriptive words used which, when considered in the light of the extrinsic evidence employed in applying-the terms of the mortgage, rendered the déscription adequate. Wade v. Strachan, 71 Mich. 459, 39 N. W. 582; State v. Logan, 100 N. C. 454, 6 S. E. 398; Nichols, S. & Co. v. Barnes, 3 Dak. 148, 14 N. W. 110; Melin v. Reynolds, 32 Minn. 52, 19 N. W. 81; Minor v. Sheehan, 30 Minn. 419, 15 N. W. 687. If, upon a retrial, it should develop-that during the year in question there were grown upon the northwest quarter of section 23 approximately 108 acres of wheat and that this-was all the crop grown upon such quarter section, in our opinion, the mortgage, when considered in the light of the extrinsic evidence, would be brought within the rule of law relied upon by the counsel for appel[352]*352lant, and would be valid. It cannot be successfully contended that the mortgage was void because the crop covered a few acres more or less than the number referred to in the description. It might well appear that the mortgage was intended to cover such crop as would be grown upon the quarter section in question, and that it was contemplated that .about 100 acres would be cropped. In the light of extrinsic facts such .as these, the failure to correctly describe the land upon which the crop was to be grown would not affect the validity of the mortgage, for under such facts it would be. quite apparent that the description could have been intended to apply to no other property than what was so described with reasonable certainty.

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

Related

Sargent County Bank v. Wentworth
500 N.W.2d 862 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1993)
Kern v. Kelner
27 N.W.2d 567 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1947)
Strong City Gin Co. v. Herring & Young
1938 OK 332 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1938)
Arro Refining Co. v. Montana & Dakota Grain Co.
286 P. 1115 (Montana Supreme Court, 1930)
Teigen v. Occident Elevator Co.
200 N.W. 38 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1924)
First State Bank v. Kellogg Commission Co.
170 N.W. 635 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 N.W. 699, 36 N.D. 346, 1917 N.D. LEXIS 199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hagen-v-dwyer-nd-1917.