Krause v. Swanson

3 N.W.2d 407, 141 Neb. 256, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 108
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 1942
DocketNo. 31266
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 3 N.W.2d 407 (Krause v. Swanson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Krause v. Swanson, 3 N.W.2d 407, 141 Neb. 256, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 108 (Neb. 1942).

Opinion

Yeager, J.

This is an action in equity by Donald S. Krause and Jeanette Krause, plaintiffs and appellants, against Frank L. Swanson and Lenore Beveridge Swanson, defendants and appellees, the purpose and prayer of which is to cancel and set aside a promissory note and second mortgage. After trial in the district court, a decree was entered denying the relief prayed by the plaintiffs. From this decree the plaintiffs have appealed.

The substantial facts on which the action is based are the following: On January 21, 1933, the defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson was the owner of the south 44 feet of the north 88 feet of lots 8 and 9, block one (1), Comer’s addition to the city of Omaha, Douglas county, Nebraska. On this date she sold this real estate on land contract to the plaintiffs for $3,400. The terms of the contract called for an initial payment of $250 with payments thereafter at the rate of $30 a month. The interest rate was 6 per cent, per annum. At the time of sale the Omaha Loan & Building Asso[258]*258ciation held a first mortgage on the premises. Within a short time plaintiffs defaulted in their payments under the terms of the contract, and in payment of taxes which they were required to pay by the terms of the contract. After default the plaintiffs, with consent of defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson, sought a refinancing loan from the Home Owners Loan Corporation, which corporation will be hereafter referred to as H. O. L. C. Finally on September 20, 1935, a loan was consummated from H. O. L. C. in the amount of $2,977.60, which was based on an appraised value by H. O. L. C. of $3,722. Prior to the making of the loan the defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson executed a “Mortgagee’s consent to take bonds” on a form supplied by H. O. L. C., which contained the following provisions:

“Being informed that application to refund above indebtedness has been made to Home Owners Loan Corporation • under the provisions of the Home Owners Loan Act of 1933, as amended, the undersigned hereby offers and consents, if ■said refunding can be consummated, to accept in full settlement of the indebtedness above set forth the aggregate sum of $2,505.48 in bonds, par value, of the Home Owners Loan Corporation, in accrued interest thereon, and in cash necessáry for adjustment not exceeding $25, and thereupon to discharge all claims of the undersigned against said property.
“The undersigned represents that he will not require of the applicant any second mortgage or other instrument evidencing any portion of the aforesaid obligation or the payment of any money or any other additional consideration except only as follows: None.”

To complete the transaction the defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson transferred title to the plaintiffs by warranty deed. This defendant accepted and receipted for the bonds specified in the consent and liquidated her mortgage to the Omaha Loan & Building Association. The receipts from refinancing were less than the amount owing by plaintiffs to defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson under their contract. After the refinancing through H. O. L. C., plaintiff Donald S. Krause and defendant Lenore Beveridge [259]*259Swanson agreed on the amount of $450 as the difference, and which difference they agreed represented an indebtedness by plaintiffs to defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson. On October 21, 1935, the plaintiffs executed and delivered to the defendant Frank L. Swanson their promissory note for $450, representing the difference between the balance due on the contract and the avails to defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson from the H. O. L. C. loan. This note bears interest at 7 per cent, per annum and is payable in instalments of $30 each six months. The note was secured by a second mortgage on the real estate involved herein.

As ground for reversal the plaintiffs claim that this note and mortgage are void for reasons (1) that they were without the knowledge and consent and made in secrecy from the H. O. L. C., (2) that a promise to execute them was compelled by the defendants, (3) that the agreement and release between the H. O. L. C. and the defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson released and discharged the plaintiffs from the mortgage debt, and (4) that the taking' of the promissory note and second mortgage was contrary to the laws of the United States and the Home Owners Loan Act of 1933, and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

Factually we find no difficulty with any of the propositions set forth. It is true that the promissory note and second mortgage were without the knowledge and did not have the consent of H. O. L. C. The evidence does not support the claim that plaintiffs were compelled to promise to execute or to execute the note and mortgage. The evidence of plaintiffs does indicate that defendant Lenore Beveridge Swanson insisted upon payment in cash, or a note and second mortgage, for the difference between the bonds and the balance due on the land contract before execution of the consent to take bonds, while defendants’ evidence is to the effect that she insisted upon cash which was never paid to her. It is beyond dispute that plaintiff Donald S. Krause offered cash, or cash and a second mortgage.

The proposition that the taking of the promissory note was violative of the federal laws pertaining to the Home [260]*260Owners Loan Act of 1933 is without any foundation whatever. An examination of the act fails to disclose anything even remotely bearing upon the question of further encumbering real estate after H. O. L. C. loan thereon. Moreover, the plaintiffs do not attempt to point out wherein the agreement to take a second mortgage is violative of the act. They ground their position on the proposition that the agreement violates the spirit of the act, denotes bad faith, is against public policy, and the note and mortgage so given are void. Cook v. Donner, 145 Kan. 674, 66 Pac. (2d) 587.

With no purpose expressed and no statement contained from which it may be reasonably implied that the national congress intended to abridge, if it constitutionally could, the right of an owner to encumber real estate further after the placing of a loan thereon by the H. O. L. C., it is difficult to understand how it may be said that an agreement such as the one under consideration here is violative of the spirit of the Home Owners Loan Act. It is equally difficult to understand, in the light of an entire lack of declaration of a legislative purpose or policy with regard to agreements for or the taking of second mortgages, how a public policy may be found growing out of the act of sufficient force and effect to nullify and render void such agreements or second mortgages. On this proposition we arrive at the same conclusion as did the Arkansas court in McMillan v. Palmer, 198 Ark. 805, 131 S. W. (2d) 943.

Coming now to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Home Owners Loan Act without setting them out, examination discloses that the ones called to our attention are plainly rules for guidance and control of the agents and agencies of H. O. L. C. in the making of loans. In the connection with which we are here concerned the regulations specify when the agents and agencies may and may not agree that second mortgages may be taken by the holders of mortgages which are liquidated by the H. O. L. C. loans. The regulations do not express or imply any force or effect upon or against persons or agencies other than those of H. O. L. C.

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Bluebook (online)
3 N.W.2d 407, 141 Neb. 256, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/krause-v-swanson-neb-1942.