Kleiner v. O'Kelley

167 P. 1, 22 N.M. 624
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 7, 1917
DocketNo. 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 167 P. 1 (Kleiner v. O'Kelley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kleiner v. O'Kelley, 167 P. 1, 22 N.M. 624 (N.M. 1917).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT.

ROBERT'S, J.

On May 30, 1911, Allen A. Phillips and wife executed and delivered to the Bonded Abstract & Security Company a promissory note for the principal sum o E $2,000, due and payable May 30, 1916. The note bore interest at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum from date until paid, payable semi-annully. At the same time, to secure the payment of the note and the interest as it should become due, Phillips and wife executed and delivered to said company a mortgage on lots 15, 16, and 7 and the north 'half of lot 8 of the El Capital Yiew subdivision of the town of Roswell. On the same day said Phillips and wife also executed and delivered to said company other negotiable promissory notes which aggregated $3,169.14, which notes were secured-by a second mortgage on said real estate. Bertha Ii. Kleiner, one of the appellees herein, purchased the $2,000 note, and Redwine and Reusser-became the owners, respectively, of some of the notes secured by the second mortgage. On July 25, 1912, Phillips and wife conveyed by warranty deed the real estate above described to the Bonded Abstract &' Security Company. This deed was made subject to the mortgages above mentioned, which said company, under said deed, assumed and agreed to pay.

On December 18, 1912, appellant was the owner of 160 acres of land in Chaves county which was free and clear of incumbrances. On said day the Bonded Abstract & Security Company, through its general manager, agreed to exchange properties with appellant. The company executed and delivered to appellant a warranty deed for the real estate above described owned by it, which deed referred to the mortgages mentioned and, proceeded:

“Both of the afore-mentioned mortgages and interest the party of the second part assumes and agrees to pay and to hold the party of the first part harmless from any obligation thereon, both as to interest and principal.”

Appellant executed to the ¡Bonded Abstract & Security Company a warranty deed for the 160 acres of land owned by him, and it executed to appellant a mortgage securing notes for a like amount as those outstanding against the land owned and conveyed to appelllant by the Bonded Abstract & Security Company. On July 20, 1915, appellant having failed to pay the interest on the $2,000 note, Bertha Ii. KLeiner instituted suit in the district court of Chaves county on said note and the past-due installments of interest, and to foreclose the mortgage. The holders of the second mortgage later set up their lien.

On the 12th day of August 1915 appellant demurred to the complaint filed by the appellee Kleiner upon the ground that the action was prematurely brought, which demurrer was overruled. Later a demurrer was filed to the cross-complaint of Kedwine and Keusser on the ground that the cross-omplaint did not state a cause of action, in that it did not appear that the appellant received any consideration for Ms alleged assumption and agreement to pay the mortgage mentioned in said cross-complaint, which demurrer was also overruled.

Counsel for appellant states'that on January 15, 1916, appellant filed his answer to the complaint of appellee Kleiner, that the answer has been omitted from the record, but that it contained, in substance, the same denials set forth in appellant’s amended answer.

On March 4, 1916, a decree was entered in favor of appellant directing the sale of the mortgaged property to pay the note and interest. After the entry of the decree mentioned, appellant filed an amended answer to the complaint of appellee Kleiner, and also to the cross-complaint of Kedwine and Keusser. The answer proceeded upon other grounds than that the cause of action was prematurely brought; no such issue being tendered by either of the amended answers.

On August 4th appellant filed a motion to set aside the sale and to vacate the judgment upon the ground that the principal sum of $2,000 covered by the decree of sale was not due when the order of sale was entered. This motion was overruled, and the sale was confirmed.

On September 7, 1916, after hearing proof, the court gave Kedwine and Keusser judgment against appellant for the sum of $2,447.50, and also gave a deficiency judgment in favor of appellee Bertha, Ii. Kleiner for the sum of $365.

By this appeal appellant seeks to review not only the judgment decreeing the foreclosure of the mortgage and the sale of the property, but also the deficiency judgment. The appeal was not taken until more than six months after the entry of the judgment decreeing the foreclosure of the mortgage, and it might be questioned whether appellant had the right to have the decree of foreclosure reviewed on this appeal; but, as the cause must be affirmed, it is not necessary to consider this question further.

[1] The first point which appellant presents for consideration is alleged error on the part of the court in overruling his demurrer to the complaint and the overruling of his motion to vacate the judgment, and to set aside the sale; the same point being raised by both the demurrer and the motion, namely, that the cause of action was prematurely instituted. Appellant concedes that the interest on the note was past-due and unpaid, and that as to this item of the complaint it stated a good cause of action; that the mortgage was properly subject to- foreclosure to pay this past-due interest. That being true, the complaint was not subject to the demurrer overruled by the court, as the demurrer was addressed to the whole of the complaint. It is a well-settled rule of law, to which we know of no exception, that a demurrer to an entire declaration or complaint made up of separable parts must be overruled if any one of the counts or parts is good as against it. 31 Cyc. 329. Because of this rule of law the demurrer filed by appellant must be eliminated from consideration, and, this being true, the case would stand as though no demurrer had been filed to the complaint.

[2] Appellant answered the complaint, and in his answer failed to raise any issue as to the prematurity of the action in so far as the principal of the note was concerned. Appellant contends, however, that this issue was one of the facts which the court was necessarily bound to find before judgment could be entered for the principal of the note. A sufficient answer to this contention is that the court found that the principal of the note was due and unpaid, and appellant made no objection whatever to this finding, and failed in any manner to call the court’s attention to the error. In the case of Fullen v. Fullen. 21 N. M. 212, 153, Pac. 294, this court, in discussing the question of the necessity for proper objection and exceptions, said:

/ “It is the plain duty of counsel, in case the court goes too far, or not far enough, or makes' a mistake to the injury of his client, to make the same known in some appropriate form, ;to the end that the error may he then and ther'e corrected,, and the client then and there may receive his just award.’"

If the appellant had called the court’s attention to the error in the finding in this regard, he,could have received relief at that time, and had such relief not been awarded to him, he would be in a position to have the error reviewed in this court.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. McKee
527 P.2d 496 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1974)
Salazar v. Lavaland Heights Block Company
402 P.2d 948 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1965)
Hart v. Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n
42 S.W.2d 798 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Priestley v. Law Et Ux.
262 P. 931 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 P. 1, 22 N.M. 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kleiner-v-okelley-nm-1917.