Land Title & Trust Co. v. Shoemaker

101 A. 335, 257 Pa. 213, 1917 Pa. LEXIS 709
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 19, 1917
DocketAppeal, No. 323
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 101 A. 335 (Land Title & Trust Co. v. Shoemaker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Land Title & Trust Co. v. Shoemaker, 101 A. 335, 257 Pa. 213, 1917 Pa. LEXIS 709 (Pa. 1917).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Moschzisker,

This case involves the distribution of a fund raised at sheriff’s sale upon the foreclosure of a mortgage; the matter was referred to an auditor, whose report was confirmed by the court below; Emma O. Bergdoll has appealed from the decree of confirmation.

Samuel Shoemaker owned a property at Fifty-second street and Wynnefield avenue, Philadelphia, which, on September 9, 1909, he mortgaged to the Land Title and Trust Company for $40,000; the mortgage was forthwith recorded; subsequently, in 1914, foreclosure proceedings were instituted thereon and a judgment entered against the mortgagor for $43,946.67; thereafter, on February 2, 1915, the property was sold at sheriff’s sale realizing $46,600; at settlement, after paying taxes and charges, $35,560 of this amount was handed to the mortgagee, and the balance, $9,305.57, was paid into court for distribution, being the fund in controversy.

The $40,000 mortgage was intended as collateral, and, when executed, the trust company loaned only $32,000 to Mr. Shoemaker; at that time the latter gave the mortgagee his demand note containing the following provision: “It is further agreed that the securities hereby pledged, together with any that may be pledged hereafter, shall be applicable in like manner to secure the payment of any......future obligations of the undersigned held by the holders of this obligation, and all such securitieis in their hands shall stand as one general con[216]*216tinuing collateral security for the whole of said obligations.”

August 5, 1912, Mr. Shoemaker gave to the trust company a bond for $150,000, reciting that, whereas the obligee had agreed to insure the erection and completion, free «of liens, of a certain building on Wayne avenue, Philadelphia, in favor of the holders of a mortgage thereon, the obligor agreed to indemnify the obligee “of and from all loss, damage, costs, charges, liability or expense” caused by this undertaking; thereupon, the trust company issued its policy of insurance in the sum of. $150,000 to Eli K. Price et ah, executors, in connection with a mortgage of like amount executed by Samuel Shoemaker et al.; the building was not completed by Shoemaker, and mechanics’ liens -were filed against it; suit was brought upon the $150,000 mortgage, and judgment recovered; the property was. sold under execution on this judgment, but the sum realized was $6,892.62 short of the amount required to pay the holders of the mortgage their debt, interest and costs; this deficiency was paid by the trust company under its title policy, on account of the loss sustained by the mortgagees through the noncompletion of the. building; in addition, the company was obliged to deposit with a referee $16,000 to meet certain mechanics’ liens filed against the premises, should such liens be sustained at law in,a proceeding-pending to test their validity.

May 28,1913, Samuel Shoemaker gave Emma C. Berg-doll, the appellant, his note for $18,000; this instrument ■recited that Mr. Shoemaker had on the, same day executed and delivered to. the holder thereof a bond and mortgage for a like amount, secured upon the property at Fifty-second street and Wynnefield avenue, being the same premises covered by the before-mentioned $40,000 mortgage; the note contained also a clause to the effect that it was to secure past and future obligations; the $18,000 bond and mortgage was duly recorded as a second lien upon the property in question, subject to the [217]*217$40,000 mortgage; at the date of the execution of the mortgage to Mrs. Bergdoll, and at the time she made her claim against the fund in controversy, Mr. Shoemaker owed her at least $18,000.

There were several claimants on the fund; but the contest we have to decide is between the trust company and Mrs. Bergdoll. The former contends that, on the facts as we have recited them, the $40,000 mortgage, in accordance with the agreement executed at the time of the original $32,000 loan, was executed and delivered not only as collateral for this first loan, but also to secure payment of any “future obligations” of Mr. Shoemaker which might thereafter be held by the mortgagee; that the $150,000 bond accepted from Mr. Shoemaker, in 1912, is such a “future obligation”; that therefore the trust company is entitled to recover out of the fund in court the amount which this latter obligation has and will cost it. On the other hand, Mrs. Bergdoll contends that, when she took her mortgage, in 1913, although the trust company then held the $150,000 bond executed by Mr. Shoemaker, and had issued its policy of title insurance in connection therewith, yet, at that date, its liability on such policy was merely potential; that the trust company never paid any actual losses thereunder until May, 1914, some months subsequent to the date of her mortgage ; hence, that she has a prior lien and is entitled to the fund in court.

The learned auditor accepted the view of the trust company, and made his award accordingly. In so doing, he finds that the latter is entitled to the sum of $6,892.62, with interest from May 14, 1914, and to the balance of the fund, should the liens upon the property whose completion it insured be declared valid; but he adds that, if these liens are not sustained, then the distribution will have to be restated.

The questions Ave have to decide are narrow, but very nice. They may be reduced to these: (1) When the trust company, in 1912, accepted and became the holder of Mr. [218]*218Shoemaker’s $150,000 bond, did it, by issuing the policy of title insurance recited therein, to the holders of the mortgage in that transaction, bind itself, in effect, to Mr. Shoemaker and his then present mortgagees, to advance to the latter, on the former’s account, such sums of money as might be necessary to indemnify the mortgagees against loss by reason of noncompletion of the building covered by their mortgage? (2) If this was the effect of the transaction just referred to, then should the contract made in 1912, Avhen the trust company accepted the $150,000 bond and issued its title policy, fie treated as a supplement to the'original agreement of 1909? (3) If, as a matter of law, it should be so considered, then, as against Mrs. Bergdoll’s mortgage of 1913, should this contract of 1912 be given the same effect as though its terms originally had been expressly incorporated into the agreement of 1909?

We think all the propositions just enumerated must be answered in the affirmative. The bond accepted in 1912 was an obligation of Mr. Shoemaker, the original mortgagor, which recited the’title policy issued by the trust company as part of the agreement then entered into; hence, both of these instruments must be considered in deciding as to the nature of that agreement; and, when so considered, it seems plain that the agreement in question 'formed a binding contract on the part of the trust company, if called upon so to do, to pay on Mr. ^ Shoemaker’s behalf any losses which his default in finishing the building described in the bond and title policy might cause to the parties insured by the latter instrument; which, in effect, was a contract to make future advances. For these advances Shoemaker was liable to the trust company on the $150,000 obligation, to secure which the latter held the $40,000 mortgage as collateral. We make this last statement, as the agreement of 1909 was that the mortgage in question should stand as collateral not only for Shoemaker’s $32,000 obligation, but also for any future obligations of the debtor which might [219]*219come into the • mortgagee’s hands.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 A. 335, 257 Pa. 213, 1917 Pa. LEXIS 709, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/land-title-trust-co-v-shoemaker-pa-1917.