Kimbrough v. Wright

50 So. 2d 909, 211 Miss. 63, 1951 Miss. LEXIS 332
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1951
DocketNo. 37824
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 50 So. 2d 909 (Kimbrough v. Wright) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kimbrough v. Wright, 50 So. 2d 909, 211 Miss. 63, 1951 Miss. LEXIS 332 (Mich. 1951).

Opinion

Kyle, J.

Mrs. Daisy P. Wright, the appellee, plaintiff in the court below, brought suit against Wm. Morgan Kim-brough, the appellant, defendant in the court below, upon a judgment rendered by the circuit court of Leflore County on May 25, 1942, against the appellant and in favor of the appellee, for the sum of $92,091.43. A copy of the judgment was filed as an exhibit to the plaintiff’s declaration.

The defendant filed an answer to the declaration, and in his answer alleged that the judgment sued on was void for the reasons set forth in the answer and the special pleas incorporated in and made a part of the answer. The plaintiff, by way of replication to the affirmative defenses set up in the answer, gave notice of special matters which she expected to prove in controversion of the defenses set up in the answer. The defendant then filed a motion in the nature of a demurrer to the special matters set [65]*65up by the plaintiff in her replication, and the cause was set down for hearing upon the defendant’s motion in the nature of a demurrer to the special matters set up in the plaintiff’s replication. The court, after hearing* the arguments of the attorneys for the respective parties, held that the declaration and the special matters set up in the plaintiff’s replication to the defendant’s answer made out a case for the plaintiff; and the court overruled the defendant’s motion in the nature of a demurrer to the plaintiff’s replication. The defendant refused to plead further, and judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for the amount shown to be due, which was the amount of the original judgment plus unpaid interest accrued thereon. From that judgment the defendant has appealed to this Court.

The judgment sued on in the plaintiff’s declaration and much of the defensive matter set forth in the defendant’s answer were under review by this Court in the case of Kimbrough v. Wright, Miss., 22 So. (2d) 158, which was before this Court on appeal from the chancery court of Leflore County in 1945. A copy of the record in the chancery court suit has been made a part of the record in this case; and for a proper understanding of the issues presented by the pleadings filed in the case that we now have before us it is necessary that a brief statement be made of the facts disclosed by the records in the two cases.

Wm. Morgan Kimbrough was adjudged non compos mentis by the verdict of a jury of inquiry and a decree of the chancery court of Hinds County on April 25, 1932, and 'was ordered to be confined in the state hospital for the insane. His wife, Mrs. Genevieve J. Kimbrough, was appointed guardian of the estate of Wm. Morgan Kim-brough by a decree of the chancery court of Leflore County on May 12, 1932.

For many years prior to the adjudication of insanity, Kimbrough had been indebted to Mrs. Daisy P. Wright for large sums of money loaned to him by Mrs. Wright, and the indebtedness was secured by mortgage deeds of [66]*66trust on real property owned by Kimbrough and situated in the City of Greenwood. The notes and deeds of trust were renewed by Kimbrough from time to time, and in 1924 Kimbrough assigned to Mrs. Wright several life insurance policies issued on his life as additional security for the payment of his indebtedness to her. These life insurance policies represented death benefit claims amounting to approximately $46,500, and most of them provided for total disability' payments in the event the insured became totally and permanently disabled. In 1930, for the purpose of satisfying Mrs. Wright’s business agent and to forestall foreclosure of the mortgage deeds of trust at that time, Kimbrough authorized Mrs. Wright’s business agent to collect the rents on the business properties covered by the above mentioned mortgages and to apply the net proceeds to the payment of the principal and interest on the indebtedness due and owing to Mrs. Wright.

After Kimbrough had become physically and mentally disabled in 1932, disability benefits became payable under the terms of the life insurance policies which had been assigned to Mrs. Wright as additional security for the indebtedness due and owing by him to her. Mrs. Wright collected the monthly payments, and out of the funds thus received made an allowance to the guardian to help take care of the living expenses of Kimbrough and his family, and credited the balance of such monthly payments upon the indebtedness due and owing to her.

After qualifying as guardian of her husband’s estate in 1932, Mrs. Genevieve J. Kimbrough, as guardian, applied to the chancery court for authority to rent the real estate owned by the ward and to permit the rents to be paid to Mrs. Wright, to be credited upon the indebtedness due and owing to her. Authority was granted by the court. And out of the gross rents received from the business properties Mrs. Wright paid the taxes, insurance and costs of repairs and upkeep of the properties, and [67]*67then credited the net balance of the income from the properties upon the mortgage indebtedness.

At the time of his adjudication of insanity, Kim-brough’s indebtedness to Mrs. Wright aggregated the sum of approximately $85,000. The indebtedness was evidenced by one note for the sum of $35,953.70, dated December 23, 1927, and due one year after date, one note for the sum of $45,000, dated October 18, 1930, and due one year after date, and one note for $5,728.94, dated December 4,1928, and due one year after date. All of the above mentioned indebtedness was secured by the mortgage deeds of trust on the real property hereinabove mentioned and the assignments of the insurance policies. In addition to the indebtedness due and owing to Mrs. Wright, Kimbrough was also indebted to Mrs. Mamie Locke and Mrs. Mary Louise Lamalle in the sum of $15,000 for the unpaid balance of the purchase price of the most valuable parcel of real estate embraced and included in the mortgage deeds of trust held by Mrs. Wright.

The guardian applied to the chancery court from time to time for authority to execute renewal notes and mortgage deeds of trust for the indebtedness due and owing to Mrs. Wright by Kimbrough, so as to avoid the bar of the statutes of limitation; and the necessary orders were granted by the court.

The total amount of the net rents and disability benefit payments received by Mrs. Wright and applied upon the mortgage indebtedness due and owing to her were insufficient to pay the interest accruing upon the mortgage indebtedness; and on January 8, 1942, the trustee in the mortgage deeds of trust foreclosed the mortgages by a trustee’s sale of the properties described in the deeds of trust. At the foreclosure sale Mrs. Wright became the purchaser of the properties for the sum of $32,205. The net proceeds of the sales were applied to the payment of the notes secured by the mortgage deeds of trust.

[68]*68After the foreclosure of the mortgage deeds of trust, Mrs. Wright and her attorney wished to reduce her claim for the balance due and owing to her by Kimbrough to a judgment without any unnecessary delay, to avoid the bar of the statute of limitations. But a controversy arose between Mrs. Wright and the guardian as to the exact amount of the balance due and owing to Mrs. Wright by' Kimbrough after the proceeds of the sales of the mortgaged properties had been applied upon the indebtedness, and negotiations were carried on for a period of several weeks between Mrs. Wright and her attorney, and the guardian and her attorney, before a satisfactory adjust-, ment of the differences between them could be arrived at. Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
50 So. 2d 909, 211 Miss. 63, 1951 Miss. LEXIS 332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kimbrough-v-wright-miss-1951.