Jackson v. Fuller

85 F.2d 816, 66 App. D.C. 239, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4249
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedAugust 31, 1936
DocketNo. 6656
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 85 F.2d 816 (Jackson v. Fuller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. Fuller, 85 F.2d 816, 66 App. D.C. 239, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4249 (D.C. Cir. 1936).

Opinion

STEPHENS, Associate Justice,

This is an appeal from a decree of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia1 dismissing, upon the ground that no cause of action was stated therein, an amended bill of complaint in equity. The general purpose of the bill was to set aside a foreclosure sale of real property. Other incidental relief was prayed for.

The complaint is lacking in brevity and clarity. We endeavor below, except where we quote, to state its allegations, seriatim, in substance and effect, with Such elimination of redundancy as is consistent with fair reflection of apparent intended meaning:

"The appellant in 1923 purchased a bo^se and l°t in the District of Columbia, subJect t0 a first deed of trust a *ote the PnnclPal sum of $3000.00, and subject also to two junior encumbrances not material here. The note, executed June 20, 1921, bore interest at 7%, payable semi-annually, and interest at 7% on each installment of interest after default therein. It provided also for acceleration of the maturity date at the election °f the holder in the event of default in any of the payments. The note matured three after d but ¡t was renewed e tbree for a time the nt the appellant of a 2% bonus but there. after w¡thout such Ws- The first deed Qf trust provided that the holder of the note mi ht discharge when due any lien of obli ation upon5the propertv, such as taxeg and insur and that u¿on failure of the owner of the property to pay upon demands sums so advanced, with 7% interest, the holder of the note might at his optjon accelerate the maturity date. Such advanees were to bear interest at 7% until paid.
“In January, 1932, the appellant, having fallen into arrears in respect of interest and' taxes, entered into an agreement with the then holder of the note, one of the ap[817]*817pellees, Timberlake, ‘to the effect that if the said plaintiff [appellant] would make smaller payments when and as convenient, on the Semi-annual interest and Taxes, he would not foreclose under the terms of the Trust . . The appellant made a number of such ‘smaller payments’ until the latter part of 1934, when Timberlake transferred the note to the appellee Fuller for the sum of $1000.00, and Fuller, in turn, transferred it to the appellee Washington Housing Corporation. At the time of these transfers both Fuller and the Washington Housing Corporation knew that the interest was almost a year in arrears, that a total of $1,224.13 in taxes was due and unpaid, and that a tax deed was outstanding for the year 1925 in the sum of $65.25. Both Fuller and Washington Housing Corporation knew of the agreement not to foreclose. The transfers from Timberlake to Fuller and Fuller to the Washington Housing Corporation were made to prevent the appellant setting up the agreement as a defense to foreclosure, and to defeat the appellant’s equities. In reality Timberlake is still the beneficial owner of the note.
“On December 3, 1934, Fuller notified the appellant that he had acquired the note, that interest and taxes were in arrears and that he intended to institute proceedings unless the taxes, and the semiannual interest payment due December 20, 1934, were paid. On December 5, 1934, and on specified dates thereafter, but without written notice to the appellant, the property was advertised for sale. In order to ward off the impending foreclosure the appellant on December 17, 1934, filed in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia a bill of complaint [not the bill of complaint in the instant case] for an injunction, and a rule to show cause was issued and served upon all of the appellees except the appellee Richardson before the sale. But through ‘inadvertence, misapprehension, mistake, or oversight’ a temporary restraining order was not obtained and a bond was not posted. On the same date, December 17, 1934, the property was ‘by reason of the facts stated, wrongfully, wickedly, and fraudulently sold’ at public auction by the appellee Chiswell, the survivor of two trustees named in the first trust deed, to Richardson, the latter being given a deed dated December 18, 1934. There were few persons at the sale — only two besides the note holder and those present in an official capacity. Though the property was sold to Richardson in her own name, she in effect purchased it for Fuller and Washington Housing Corporation. The property was sold for a grossly inadequate sum. The assessed value of the property was $4528.-00 — $1728.00 for the land, and $2800.00 for the improvements. It was worth $6000.00 or more.”

After setting forth the foregoing, the bill of complaint charged [we here quote] :

“The said plaintiff is advised, believes, and therefore avers, that the said defendants Fuller and or said Housing Corporation actually secured the said property hereinbefore described for the grossly inadequately sum or price of about $1000.-00 cash plus expenses of said public auction sale. The said $1000.00 cash being the said amount, alleged to have been paid for said note, if said note was actually sold and bought as aforesaid. The aforesaid holder of note Fuller for himself individually, or for aforesaid defendant Arline Richardson, individually, or in her name for the aforesaid Housing Corporation, run the price up to $1500.00 at the aforesaid Auction sale subject to $1224.-13 Tax liens. No cash other than the aforesaid expenses of the aforesaid public auction sale, was paid as a result of the aforesaid sale other than the aforesaid $1000.00, nothing having been paid to the owner of the aforesaid property, as a result of the aforesaid public auction sale. At most the aforesaid $1500.00 plus taxes aforesaid, $1224.13, which could in a great measure be liquidated, in monthly payments, or other installments, plus aforesaid auction sale expenses, would aggregate about $2800.00, or in any event, less than one half of price of the aforesaid property. No taxes had been paid up to the date of RETURN OF RULE TO SHOW CAUSE, (Dec. 26, 1934). So that in any event the aforesaid property was bought in reality for aforesaid $1000.00 paid for aforesaid note plus aforesaid actual public auction sale expenses, of probably less than $100 actually paid.”

The appellant prayed that: The interest provided for in the note be forfeited on the ground of usury; the foreclosure sale be set aside, the deed to the appellee Richardson cancelled, and a decree entered ordering reconveyance of the property to the appellant; the present holders of the note be decreed to hold it subject to the agreement not to foreclose; the appellees Ful[818]*818ler, Washington Housing Corporation and Richardson be en joined from selling, encumbering or altering the property; all of the appellees be required to disclose their true relationship in respect of the purchase of the note, and of the property at the foreclosure sale, and to reveal who was the beneficial owner of the note at the time of the foreclosure sale and who was the beneficial purchaser of the property; an accounting be had and such incidental relief granted as the court may deem proper.

The appellant’s bill seems to attempt to combine two causes of action — the first to have declared invalid those provisions of the note which require interest on unpaid interest installments, and the second to set aside the foreclosure sale. If the general assignment of errors may be said to'cover the trial court’s ruling on the first cause of action asserted — there was no specific assignment on such ruling — still the appellant makes no argument in her brief in respect of that ruling.

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Bluebook (online)
85 F.2d 816, 66 App. D.C. 239, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-fuller-cadc-1936.