John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. v. Casey

147 F.2d 762, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 3133
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedFebruary 27, 1945
DocketNos. 4046, 4047
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 147 F.2d 762 (John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. v. Casey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. v. Casey, 147 F.2d 762, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 3133 (1st Cir. 1945).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Carlton Hotel, Inc., hereinafter referred to as the debtor, is the owner of premises known as the Hotel Buckminster in Boston. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, hereinafter referred to as John Hancock or as appellant, is the holder of a first mortgage on the premises. The principal amount of the mortgage note has been reduced from $345,000 to $323,000. There has been a default in payments of interest and installments of principal. ■ The mortgage contains no acceleration clause, and runs until November 1, 1955, when a final balance of $183,-170 becomes due.

On August 5, 1942, the debtor filed in the court below its petition for reorganization pursuant to Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 501 et seq. This petition was approved on August 18, 1942, and a trustee appointed.

Meanwhile, on August 17, 1942, the United States filed, also in the court below, a petition for condemnation of the Buck-minster Hotel premises except that portion thereof occupied by the Yankee Network, Inc., as lessee. The interest sought to be taken was “a term for years ending June 30, 1945 * * * said term to be cancellable at the election of the United States on June 30, 1943, or on June 30, 1944, which election shall be signified by the giving of sixty days’ notice.” The United States deposited with the clerk of the court the sum of $34,945 as the estimated just compensation for taking the use and occupation of the premises from August 17, 1942, to June 30, 1943. Judgment was entered for the United States on the petition for condemnation and statutory declaration of taking filed pursuant to 40 U.S. C.A. § 258a.

In John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Casey, 1943, 139 F.2d 207, we affirmed an order of the District Court entered May 4, 1943, directing the disbursement of this deposit of $34,945 to the trustee in the reorganization proceedings.

On August 24, 1943, the United States filed an amendment to its declaration of taking in the condemnation, proceedings, correcting the estate to be acquired so as to read as follows: “The estate taken for said public uses is a term for years ending June 30, 1944, extendable for yearly periods thereafter during the existing national emergency at the election of the United States, notice of which election shall be filed in this proceeding at least sixty days prior to the end of the term taken or subsequent extensions thereof,. * * At the same time, the United States deposited in the registry of the court the further sum of $40,000 as the estimated just compensation for the taking of the property for the term commencing July 1, 1943, and ending June 30, 1944.1

The two pending appeals are the sixth and seventh appeals to this court taken by John Hancock, the mortgagee, on one or another phase of the above reorganization and condemnation proceedings. The earlier appeals are found in John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Casey, 1 Cir., 1943, 134 F.2d 162, certiorari denied 319 U.S. 757, 63 S.Ct. 1176, 87 L.Ed. 1709; Id., 1 Cir., 1943, 139 F.2d 207; Id., 1 Cir., 1944, 141 F.2d 104, certiorari denied 65 S.Ct. 39; John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Thompson, Collector of Taxes, 1 Cir., 1944, 147 F.2d 761.

In No. 4047, the appeal is from an order of the District Court in the condemnation proceedings entered September 14, 1944, directing the disbursement out of the $40,000 deposit of the sum of $13,922.17 to the trustee of Carlton Hotel, Inc., “in trust for the purpose of complying with the order entered this day in the matter of Carlton Hotel, Inc., debtor in reorganization proceedings * * In No. 4046, the appeal is from a complimentary order in the reorganization proceedings entered September 14, 1944, directing that the trustee pay to John Hancock the sum of $48,867.17, and providing that John Hancock shall accept said payment and apply it “in satisfaction of any arrears to and including May 1, 1944, upon the note and mortgage held by it of the debtor, Carlton Hotel, Inc., and in satisfaction of the money expended by [John Hancock] for premiums of insurance on buildings upon the real estate covered by said mort[765]*765gage in the amount of $2,004.25.” Further, the order directed that the trustee “use for such payment the sum of $34,945, to which he is entitled under order of the fourth day of May, 1943, and the further sum of $13,922.17 which lias this day been ordered disbursed to said Thomas J. Casey, trustee” by the aforesaid order in the condemnation proceedings.

We do not readily understand why John Hancock objects to being paid, as provided in the orders under review.

Appellant expresses apprehension that “to accept the $48,867.17 in satisfaction of all arrears, as ordered by the court, may result in prejudicing the mortgagee’s right to recover” various costs, charges and attorneys’ fees alleged to have been incurred in connection with the entry to foreclose, and also litigation expenses — as to which items the court expressly reserved its ruling. It is evident from a reading of the memorandum filed by the District Court that the sum of $48,867.17 embraced only (1) principal and interest payments due up to and including May 1, 1944, (2) the pro rata amount due the reserve fund for taxes as required by the mortgage note, and (3) the sum of $2,004.25 covering war risk and fire insurance premiums paid by the mortgagee. It was certainly not an abuse of discretion for the court to order immediate payment of the uncontroverted items, reserving for further consideration other items which might be subject to challenge, either as to their amount or as to the propriety of their payment out of the particular funds before the court. Whatever rights the mortgagee may have as to these reserved items are by no means foreclosed by the orders in question.

We do not find in the record any actual situation requiring the application of principles of marshaling, certainly none which this appellant has any standing to raise. In its statement of points, appellant claims error in the District Court’s denial of its request for ruling No. 13, as follows: “The rents received from The Yankee Network, Inc., should be applied in payment of the sums due upon the mortgage from Carlton Hotel, Inc., to John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company before any part of the sums received in the condemnation proceedings are applied in payment of the sums due on said mortgage.” But it has been the consistent position of John Hancock that it is not only entitled to a turnover of all the rental moneys in the hands of the trustee derived from the Yankee Network lease, to be applied to the arrears on the mortgage note, but that as holder of the first mortgage it also is entitled to be paid from the condemnation deposit “the whole amount thereof to the amount remaining unpaid on its mortgage”; further, that if the estate taken by condemnation “is less in value than the amount of [the] mortgage, [the mortgagee] is entitled to the value o-f the estate taken irrespective of whether the value of his security was diminished thereby.” In fact, appellant assigns as error the court’s denial of various requests for rulings to this effect.2

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Related

Swanson v. United States
156 F.2d 442 (Ninth Circuit, 1946)
John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. v. Casey
155 F.2d 229 (First Circuit, 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
147 F.2d 762, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 3133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-hancock-mut-life-ins-v-casey-ca1-1945.