Hastings v. Wise

8 P.2d 636, 91 Mont. 430, 1932 Mont. LEXIS 38
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 13, 1932
DocketNo. 6,876.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 8 P.2d 636 (Hastings v. Wise) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hastings v. Wise, 8 P.2d 636, 91 Mont. 430, 1932 Mont. LEXIS 38 (Mo. 1932).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE AN6STMAN

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiffs, as owners and holders of twenty-one real estate mortgages executed by Cook-Reynolds Company, and covering lands situated in Judith Basin county, brought this action to foreclose the mortgages.

The mortgages are dated April 1, 1909, and are identical in form and substance, except as to the amount of the indebtedness secured and the description of the property. Each mortgage secured six promissory notes executed by the mortgagor, each of which matures at a different date, the due date of the last maturing note secured by each mortgage being April 1, 1919. The notes were made payable to William O. Straw and the mortgages were executed to him.

On September 1, 1910, the Cook-Reynolds Company conveyed the property to defendant Wise, subject to the mortgages. By warranty deed dated February 26, 1927, Wise conveyed the lands to his sister, Edna W. Keller, appellant here, the deed not being recorded until September 9, 1929. This deed recited: “This property is conveyed subject to all existing mortgages and liens of record.”

*432 After the execution and delivery of the notes some of them were assigned to Agnes H. Straw, and she became the owner of the remainder under the terms of the will of her husband, William 0. Straw. Plaintiffs, as beneficiaries under the will of Agnes H. Straw, deceased, have become the owners of the notes and mortgages.

On January 13, 1919, Agnes H. Straw, being then the owner of the notes and mortgages, made a formal agreement with Wise, who was then the owner of the land, by the terms of which the respective dates of maturity of all of the notes were extended for a period of ten years from and after April 1, 1919. This agreement was duly acknowledged. It was duly recorded on July 23-, 1929. By the terms of that agreement defendant Wise assumed and agreed to pay the mortgage indebtedness represented by the notes, together with interest. It then provided, “that this instrument is for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of a renewal of said respective mortgages and shall operate and have the effect of the execution and delivery of new mortgages securing said respective sums of money.” Defendant Wise paid interest on the notes until April, 1926, and nothing since.

When appellant Edna W. Keller took the deed to the property she had no knowledge of the extension agreement. She alleged in her verified answer that she became the owner of the land on the twenty-fifth day of February, 1927, but Wise testified that the deed was not actually delivered to her until in December, 1927; but when he was asked, “When did you say you transferred to her this land?” he said, “On the date it is conveyed in the deed. ’ ’ There was sufficient evidence to warrant a finding that there was constructive delivery of the deed at the moment it was executed. (Sec. 6848, Rev. Codes 1921.) At the time the deed to her was executed, the only mortgages of record were those set out in the complaint.

The court, sitting without a jury, found in favor of plaintiffs, and defendant Edna W. Keller appealed.

The question presented by the appeal is whether the extension agreement takes priority over appellant’s deed. Her eon *433 tention is that it does not because of sections 8243, 8267 and 9029, Revised Codes of 1921. The question was properly raised by attacking the sufficiency of the complaint and by objection to the introduction in evidence of the extension agreement. Were these the only statutes on the subject, the contention would have merit in view of the holding in the case of Morrison v. Farmers’ etc. State Banh, 70 Mont. 146, 225 Pac. 123. But section 8267 is not the only statute under which a mortgage may be extended. Section 8264, Revised Codes of 1921, provides: “A mortgage of real property can be created, renewed, or extended, only by writing, with the formalities required in the case of a grant of real property.” On the former appeal in this case (Hastings v. Wise, 89 Mont. 325, 297 Pac. 482, 485) we said: “When the defendant Keller received deed for the property, she took it chargeable with knowledge of the existence of the mortgages and that they might be extended by a compliance with the provisions of either section 8267 or 8264.”

The case of O. M. Corwin Co. v. Brainard, 80 Mont. 318, 260 Pac. 706, sustains the right of the parties to a mortgage by their joint act to extend it under section 8264, without regard to section 8267, where the rights of third parties are not affected.

In Vitt v. Rogers, 81 Mont. 120, 262 Pac. 164, 167, the right to extend the life of a mortgage while still alive, under section 8264, was held to exist, even though prior thereto the rights of third parties attached. In that case this language was used: “When the subsequent mortgagees took their mortgages in June, 1920, plaintiff’s mortgage was valid and subsisting. They knew plaintiff might foreclose it at some time before the end of the eight-year period, and that he might extend it for a further period of eight years. It is not reasonable to suppose that defendants, when they took their mortgages, contemplated the possibility that plaintiff would fail to foreclose his mortgage or would let it lapse by failure to renew it. They must have contemplated that the plaintiff would get his money before they could get theirs. If he *434 foreclosed his mortgage and caused the land to be sold in satisfaction of the judgment, they would have to exercise the right of redemption given them by statute in order to save the land for the satisfaction of their own mortgages. When the mortgagors and plaintiff extended the maturity of the debt to a date within the eight-year period and plaintiff commenced his action to foreclose the mortgage within two years of the new maturity date, we fail to see how the defendants were injured in any way. We do not see that they are in a worse position than the one they were in when they took their second mortgages. The burden resting upon them now is no heavier than it was then. They are asking an advantage which will come to them if plaintiff’s mortgage is wiped out, but they do not show that they have in any manner been placed at any disadvantage. The equities are not with but against them. The mortgagors and plaintiff were privileged to extend the time of payment of the debt due plaintiff and to renew or extend the mortgage if by so doing they did not injure third persons; that is clear. (O. M. Corwin Co. v. Brainard, supra.) It does not appear that the defendants have been injured in any way. Their counsel does not even advance that argument. His main reliance is upon the Morrison Case.” The only substantial difference between that case and this is that there the extension agreement was placed of record before the expiration of the time as extended, though after the rights of the third party had been acquired and placed of record.

The extension agreement here involved was made before but not recorded until after the original maturity of the last maturing note secured by the mortgages.

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Bluebook (online)
8 P.2d 636, 91 Mont. 430, 1932 Mont. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hastings-v-wise-mont-1932.