Helck v. . Reinheimer

12 N.E. 87, 105 N.Y. 470, 8 N.Y. St. Rep. 73, 60 Sickels 470, 1887 N.Y. LEXIS 739
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 26, 1887
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 12 N.E. 87 (Helck v. . Reinheimer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Helck v. . Reinheimer, 12 N.E. 87, 105 N.Y. 470, 8 N.Y. St. Rep. 73, 60 Sickels 470, 1887 N.Y. LEXIS 739 (N.Y. 1887).

Opinion

*472 Rapallo, J.

This was an action to foreclose a mortgage-on real estate, executed in the year 1873 by Jacob Beinheimer and his wife Philipena, to the plaintiff’s intestate, to secure the-payment of money lent. Hone of the defendants answered except Henry Beinheimer and Henry Beinheimer, Jr. The execution of the mortgage and the amount due thereon were not disputed, but the two defendants who answered set up as-a defense that, at the time of the execution of the mortgage, the mortgagor, Jacob Beinheimer, had no title to the mortgaged premises, and had acquired none since; that in 1864 he had conveyed said premises to the defendant Henry Beinheimer in trust for the benefit of said Philipena and the heirs of said Jacob, and that said Henry still owned them for the purposes of the trust, and they demanded as relief that, the complaint be dismissed and that the premises be adjudged, free from the lien of said mortgage.

The plaintiff then amended his complaint and alleged that the trust set up in the answer had terminated; that the deed was void, and demanded, in addition to the judgment of foreclosure, that the alleged trust deed be adjudged null and void.

The same answer was then made to the amended complaint, and the issues were tried before the court.

Ho question of fact was involved, but only the construction and effect of the deed from Jacob Beinheimer and wife to-Henry Beinheimer, given in 1864, the defendants contending that it created a valid trust and that the mortgage created no-lien, and the plaintiff insisting that the deed was of no effect.

Heither of the parties made any objection to the trial of this issue in the foreclosure suit. If the objection had been raised that the defendants claimed under a title paramount to the mortgage, it would, according to some of the cases cited,, have been the duty of the court to refuse to try that issue. It is not necessary to decide that question now; but if that course had been taken,- the judgment rendered would have had no effect upon the rights of either party, so far as the question of the validity or effect of the trust deed is concerned. But instead of taking the objection, both parties- *473 submitted their rights, in that regard, to the adjudication of the court.

The court at Special Term decided that the deed of September, 1864, to Henry Beinheimer and the contract therein recited, were intended as a marriage settlement for the benefit of the children of the marriage between said Philipena Beinheimer, as well as for the said Philipena, and created a valid implied trust for the benefit of said children, and a power in trust in favor of said Henry, and that the mortgage to plaintiff’s intestate conveyed no interest in the mortgaged premises, and accordingly rendered judgment dismissing the complaint with costs.

The General Term, on appeal from the judgment, decided that the question of the validity and effect of the trust deed should not have been tried in this action, the interests of those claiming under that deed not being subsequent to the mortgage, but being adverse to it, and the complaint should be dismissed with costs as to the two defendants who had answered, but without any decision on the merits, and that as to the other defendants the usual decree of foreclosure should be granted. Judgment was entered, in conformity with this decision, containing a provision that the judgment should not prejudice any parties who might be interested under the trust deed or involve its validity or effect.

We do not concur in the view taken by the court at General Term. If the defendants had claimed that they had been improperly made parties defendant, because their rights were paramount and not subsequent to the mortgage and could not properly be litigated in this action, it might, as before stated, have been proper to dismiss the complaint with costs, as to them, for that reason. But in this case instead of taking any such ground, they themselves, in their answer, set up their claims under the trust deed, and asked that they be adjudicated upon, and demanded judgment that the mortgaged premises be freed from the mortgage, and that it be discharged of record, and on the trial both parties litigated the question, and the defendants obtained judgment in their own favor thereon. *474 Under these circumstances we think that it was too late to take the ground that the dismissal of the complaint, as to them, should be sustained on the ground that the questions could not properly be litigated in this action. Both parties having consented to litigate, and having actually litigated them in this form, we think they would both be bound by the judgment. (Judson v. Van Epps, 85 N. Y. 427, 435, 436; Barnard v. Onderdonk, 98 id. 158, 163.)

We must, therefore, consider the case as to the two defendants, who are respondents on this appeal, upon the merits. As to the other defendants, whose interests are alleged in the complaint to be subsequent and subject to the mortgage, and who have not answered, the judgment will not estop them as to any rights which they may have by title paramount to the mortgage. But as to the two respondents, one of whom is the trustee named in the alleged trust deed, and the other' one claiming to be a beneficiary thereunder, a valid judgment can be rendered determining the questions which they have voluntarily litigated in this action.

The deed of September, 1864, under which they claim, is, in substance to the following effect: It recites an ante-nuptial contract between Jacob Beinheimer, then the owner in fee of the mortgaged premises, bearing date the 13th of August, 1863, of the first part, Philipena Winegarth of the second part, and Henry Beinheimer, brother of said Jacob, of thethird part; that a marriage is shortly to be solemnized between said Jacob and said Philipena, and therefore it is agreed as follows :

First. The said Jacob agrees that in case the intended marriage is solemnized he and said Philipena will, by a sufficient conveyance, settle and convey the land in question on and to said Henry, “ to the use, benefit and behoof of the said Philipena, in- the manner following. ” That in the event of the decease of the said Jacob Beinheimer during the lifer-time of the said Philipena she shall have the use of the south half of the property during her natural life, and after her decease the same shall revert to the heirs of said Jacob Beinheimer, and

*475 Second. The use of the other half of said premises dwring the minority of Henry Beinheimer and Mary Beinheimer, two children of said Jacob by a former marriage, and when they become of age that they shall have the north half of said property conveyed to them, and in the event of the decease of the said Philipena without issue during the lifetime of the said Jacob ail the property shall be transferred back to said Jacob.

Third.

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Bluebook (online)
12 N.E. 87, 105 N.Y. 470, 8 N.Y. St. Rep. 73, 60 Sickels 470, 1887 N.Y. LEXIS 739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/helck-v-reinheimer-ny-1887.