Kelly v. Israel

11 Paige Ch. 147
CourtNew York Court of Chancery
DecidedAugust 6, 1844
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 11 Paige Ch. 147 (Kelly v. Israel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelly v. Israel, 11 Paige Ch. 147 (N.Y. 1844).

Opinion

The Chancellor.

The objection that W. S. Warwick has no interest in the subject matter of these orders, and has therefore no right to appeal, appears to be well taken. He has been discharged under the bankrupt act, as charged in the petition and not denied. And before his discharge he had conveyed all his interest in the equity of redemption to a trustee, for the benefit of his creditors, which interest has long since been sold by the trustee. He is, therefore, attempting to interfere in a matter, in which he has no interest whatever. His appeal must accordingly be dismissed, with costs to the respondents, to be taxed.

The question whether the assignee pendente lite of an interest in the equity of redemption, or of a junior incumbrance thereon, can be heard in relation to the time or manner of selling the mortgaged premises, under a decree of foreclosure, without the delay and expense of making himself a party to the suit by a supplemental bill, do.es not arise here. For if the statements in the petition are true, the interest of De Launay accrued before the filing of the complainant’s bill in either of these causes; [153]*153and a mere consent, of a party not affected by the decree, to come in and be bound by such decree, is not of itself sufficient to authorize him to interfere in the suit. So much of the order, therefore, as gives him the right to pay the money into court and to have the benefit of the decree, is erroneous..

Rogers & Sagory, however, are parties to the suit; and they have an interest in the surplus proceeds of the sale sufficient to authorize them to interfere, notwithstanding they have pledged their $20,000 mortgage to De Launay as security for the loan from him. For the loss, if any, in the collection of that mortgage, must eventually fall upon-them. The delay in selling under the decree, and suffering the interest to accumulate while the lents and profits of the mortgaged premises were being received and appropriated by other persons to their own use, was not only unjust as to Rogers & Sagory as junior incumbrancers, or as having an interest in the collection of this junior mortgage, but it also endangered the rights of Thompson, who is personally liable for any deficiency there may be, in the proceeds of the sales, to satisfy the second and third mortgages. ■ Where property, against which there has been a decree of foreclosure, is thus situated, the complainant has no right to suspend the execution of the decree, in which execution other parties are interested. And if the complainant neglects to proceed to a sale with due diligence, the court, upon the application of any other party interested in the execution ofethe decree, will commit the prosecution thereof to him; or if the decree has already been placed in the hands of a master to be executed, will direct-him to proceed to a sale, without delay, notwithstanding any directions he may receive to the contrary from the complainant or his solicitor. Indeed it is the duty of the master, without any special order of the court for that purpose, to proceed to a sale of the property with all reasonable diligence, if requested to do so, by any party to the suit who must necessarily be injured, by the delay, if the sale is stayed without a sufficient cause.

In this case, the circumstances in which the complainant’s solicitor was placed, by W. Kelly’s declining to bid on the property, after his interviews with Sagory and Mr. Argenti, and by [154]*154the absence of his client, and the want of instructions how to act in such a contingency, was sufficient to justify the master,-in the exercise of a sound discretion,to postpone the sale for a reasonable time; to enable the solicitor to communicate with his client. And if the master had proceeded to sell the property on the day to which the sale stood adjourned, the extra costs of the master, occasioned by such adjournment, should have been-allowed.

But no sufficient excuse is given for the subsequent abandonment of the notice of sale; leaving the owner of the equity of redemption to enjoy the use of the property for an indefinite period, at the expense of the holders of the junior incumbrances. It was also jeoparding the rights of Thompson, who was personally liable to the complainant for the deficiency in the proceeds of the sale, if any there should be, to pay the second and third mortgages and the accumulating interest thereon. The proceedings under the. decree should not have been' abandoned, without the assent of the defendant Thompson, and of the junior incumbrancers who had an interest in having the property sold with the least possible delay. And as the expense of advertising, and of the other proceedings of the master in part execution of the decrees for the sale of the mortgaged premises, which had already been incurred, were rendered entirely useless by such discontinuance of the notices of sale, and as the whole expense must be again incurred in the execution of the decrees, I think the vice chancellor wds right in refusing to subject the surplus proceeds of the sale to a double charge for master’s fees and expenses of advertising, &c.

The proper relief to be given upon the petition and notice, however, was to direct the master to proceed and sell the property without delay; and if necessary, a receiver of the rents and profits of the premises in the meantime might have been appointed. As some parts of the premises were to be sold.under three separate and distinct decrees, it was proper to give such, directions to the master, as to the manner of selling, as to prevent a sacrifice of .the property. But in the manner in which' these orders are drawn up, there may be difficulties in the exe[155]*155cution of .the decrees which the vice chancellor does not appear to have anticipated. For if the premises included in the first mortgage should be put up and sold, under the decree founded on that mortgage, the surplus must, as the decree and orders now stand, be brought into court to abide the litigation among the subsequent incumbrancers; and it cannot be applied by the master to the satisfaction of the decrees on the second and third mortgages, without the expense and delay of a new application to the court for that purpose. And if that part of the premis.es should be first sold under the decree upon the third mortgage, the same might be immediately put up and sold again under the decrees upon the prior mortgages. To prevent any difficulties of that kind, but. one order should be entered, in all three of the suits, directing the master as to the manner of selling and applying the proceeds to satisfy all the decrees; without the expense of bringing that part of the proceeds into court.

The orders appealed from must be reversed, without costs to either party upon the appeal of the complainant.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Paige Ch. 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelly-v-israel-nychanct-1844.