Le Boeuf v. Gary

101 A.D. 358

This text of 101 A.D. 358 (Le Boeuf v. Gary) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Le Boeuf v. Gary, 101 A.D. 358 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Kellogg, J.:

The defendant Gillett, the owner of a judgment recovered August 16, 1893, against the grantor of Everiste Le Boeuf, one of the plaintiffs herein, asks that provision be made in the judgment of partition herein for the payment of said judgment, to which the plaintiffs object on the ground that the said Evariste Le Boeuf is a subsequent .purchaser of the premises from, the judgment debtor, and that said judgment ceased to be a lien August 15, 1903. Administration was bad upon the estate of the judgment debtor March 16, 1900, and by virtue of section 1380 of the Code,of Civil Procedure the statutory lien of the said judgment, which otherwise would have expired August 15,1903,* was continued for three years and six months from the date of such administration, and terminated ‘ September 15, 1903. In partition it is optional with the plaintiff, [360]*360under section 1540 of the Code Of Civil Procedure, whether he will make a party having a lien upon an undivided share or interest in the property a defendant or not. The plaintiffs made the then owner of this judgment a party, serving upon him a verified complaint June 6,1903, alleging the said judgment;, that the. plaintiffs are the owners of an undivided one^sixth of said premises, subject to the lien of said judgment, and that the premises consist of a farm which cannot be divided, but must be sold, and ask judgment for the sale of the farm and that the proceeds- be divided between the respective parties according to their shares, rights and interests'. '■At the time the summons and complaint was served the owner of the said judgment had 101 days remaining, which gave ample time to collect the judgment by execution before the lien expired. On June 12,1903, a supplemental and amended complaint was served by the plaintiffs containing substantially the same allegations and prayer for relief, and on August first another amended complaint was served containing substantially the same allegations and prayer for relief. "When this latter complaint was served there were but 45 days' remaining, not giving time to obtain- leave to issue execution and effect a sale under the judgment before the statutory time expired, and. an execution ought not. to issue against an estate for the, sale of real estate unless there is sufficient time remaining before the statutory lien expires, in which to make the sale. (Darling v. Littlejohn 35 N. Y. St. Repr. 516.)

So we must conclude that at that late day, when the owner of the, judgment had nó legal remedy by which he could collect but of this real estate before the expiration- of the lien, the plaintiffs were still recognizing that the owner of the judgment was entitled to be paid out of the proceeds-of- the sale. The defendant Crapser, the owner of the judgment at. the time the action was ■ brought, having transferred it to the defendant Gillett, the-latter obtained-from this court an order dated August 15, 1903, bringing him -into -the action as a defendant, and upon that " date he serves an answer alleging that the judgment has been transferred by the- defendant Crapser to him, and that he is the owner thereof, and asks that the same be paid to him. Thereupon the plaintiffs served an amended complaint, verified the'49th day of- August) 1903, alleging said judgment and -its transfer to the defendant Gillett, and that after the- commence[361]*361ment of this action, and on the tenth day of August, the said Gillett applied to the Surrogate of Franklin county for leave to issue an execution, which leave was denied upon the ground that the lien of said judgment would expire on the sixteenth day of August, and that by virtue of said adjudication by said surrogate the plaintiff Evariste Le Boeuf, being a purchaser in good faith, the interest of the plaintiffs in said premises is free and clear from the lien of said judgment, to which the defendant Gillett served an amended answer insisting that said judgment should be. paid in tiffs action. It is significant that before this action was commenced the defendant Crapser had served on plaintiffs and others interested a notice of motion asking leave to issue execution upon this judgment, returnable before this court on the sixth day of June, but said motion for some reason was continued-until the sixth day of July, when leave was granted. On the 14th day of July, 1903, Gillett filed a petition with the Franklin county surrogate for leave to issue an execution upon said judgment, which matter for some reason continued along until the 10th day of August, 1903, when the surrogate denied said application Upon the ground that the lien of said judgment would expire before a sale could be had upon execution. The fact that this action was pending and the proceedings therein and the effect thereof do not seem to have been before or considered by the surrogate, so that decree only adjudges that upon the facts appearing before him an execution ought not to issue because a sale under it could not take place until after the statutory lien had expired. But the question here is whether, by reason of the particular circumstances existing in this action, the plaintiffs' are precluded from denying that the defendant Gillett is entitled to have his judgment paid out of the proceeds of the sale in this action. With confidence the defendant cites Caswell v. Kemp (41 Hun, 434), which holds that a defendant in a partition case who holds a' judgment against the ancestor of the tenants in common is entitled to have it paid out of the proceeds, even though the statutory lien expires during the pendency of the action, saying that the liens existed at the time the suit was commenced, and the interests' must be determined with reference to the rights of the parties as they existed at the commencement of the action. With equal confidence the plaintiffs refer to Nutt v. Cuming (155 N. Y 309), [362]*362where in an action óf foreclosure-the owner of a subsequent judgment was made a defendant, and a decree of foreclosure and sale in the usual form was madé 'before the statutory lien expired, but the sale did not take place till .five years later and after the statutory lien had expired, and upon an application for the surplus moneys it was held that the lien having expired the judgment creditor had no claim Upon the surplus, moneys. The opinion seems to proceed upon the effect of rule 64 of the General Rules of Practice, which provides that any person having a lien on mortgaged premises at the time of the sale may apply for the surplus moneys, and also upon the theory that the owner of the mortgage was' simply pro-r ceeding against the property for the payment of his debt and that the surplus arose as an incident to that proceeding, and was not súch a bringing of the fund into a court of equity that the owner of the judgment could assert his lights as of the time of the commencement of the action, but must relyjipon the situation as he finds it when he seeks his remedy. While a maj ority of the court do not refer to Caswell v. Kemp (supra), the opinion draws a clear distinction between that case and the one then under consideration. .The dissenting opinion refers to it with confidence. There is a broad distinction with reference to such a judgment-between an action of partition and an action of foreclosure, especially where the action of partition is brought by the owner of the share in the property against which the judgment is a lien. In such a case he brings all the parties interested in the property and the property itself into a court of equity to be distributed according to the legal and equitable rights and interests of the'parties.

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Bluebook (online)
101 A.D. 358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/le-boeuf-v-gary-nyappdiv-1905.