Machold v. Farnan

117 P. 408, 20 Idaho 80, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 86
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJune 22, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 117 P. 408 (Machold v. Farnan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Machold v. Farnan, 117 P. 408, 20 Idaho 80, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 86 (Idaho 1911).

Opinions

SULLIVAN, J.

This action is a continuation of the litigation of the parties hereto begun in April, 1907. See Machold v. Farnan, 14 Ida. 258, 94 Pac. 170, reference to which opinion is made for some of the facts in this ease. The action was originally brought for the specific performance of the contract sued on in this action, and the theory upon which the case was then tried was that said contract was for the sale of real estate. On the first trial judgment was given to the plaintiff and on appeal the judgment was reversed and a new trial granted. After the ease was remanded for a new trial, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint, wherein it was alleged that a certain deed from one Millick to the defendant Farnan and a contract between the parties hereto were intended as a mortgage to secure the payment of money loaned to appellant, and prayed that the deed from the Oregon Mortgage Company to Millick and from Millick to the defendant be adjudged and decreed to be mortgages, and that the plaintiff be adjudged and decreed to be the owner of the premises described therein,- that the defendant be adjudged to account and pay to plaintiff the damages he has sustained by the breach of the covenant to convey said land to plaintiff, and that plaintiff be given a money judgment against the said defendant to comply with section 3364, Rev. Stat. of Idaho, 1887 (sec. 3402, Rev. Codes), and for costs of suit.

An answer was filed to said amended complaint in which its material allegations were denied, and respondent set forth allegations to quiet her title to said land, which cross-complaint was answered by appellant. The cause was again tried upon the new issues thus made, and the trial court made its findings of fact and conclusions of law and entered judgment holding said deed to the defendant and contract between the [85]*85defendant and plaintiff to be a mortgage to secure tbe payment of $2,000, together with interest and taxes to the date of said trial, amounting in aE to $2,929.87, and further adjudging that the appellant have ninety days in which to make payment of the amount so found due, and upon the payment thereof that the said property be freed and discharged from any claim or lien held or possessed by respondent by reason of said mortgage. It was further ordered that in the event appellant failed to make payment of said amount within the time limited, that respondent’s title to the land and premises should be quieted as against appellant. The appeal is from said judgment and from the order denying a new trial.

Numerous errors are assigned and a brief containing sixty-nine pages of printed matter and a supplemental brief containing fourteen pages of typewritten matter were filed by the appellant, who appears as his own attorney.

In our view of the matter, it wEl not be necessary for us in this opinion to pass upon each of the errors assigned, but will say at the outset that we have examined them all in connection with the briefs and argument of counsel for appellant and find no reversible error in the record.

We will say in limine that the prayer of the complaint contains a request that the deed and agreement be declared a mortgage, but it does not ask permission to redeem from that mortgage. It was held in Mack v. Hill, 28 Mont. 99, 72 Pac. 307, that there is no such thing as an action for the sole object of declaring a deed to be a mortgage, as the court wiE not grant that relief unless the plaintiff shaE be willing to have the whole controversy disposed of by offering to redeem from the mortgage so established. The case at bar, however, was treated as one in which permission to redeem is sought and the findings and decree were entered upon that theory. This action having been tried upon that theory, it was proper for the court to find the amount due and to order that it be paid within a reasonable time, or in the event of failure to make payment, that the plaintiff’s action be dismissed.

[86]*86In Cowing v. Rogers, 34 Cal. 648, from which the Montana court in Mack v. Hill, supra, quoted, the court said:

“It is very clear that when he [the mortgagor] does sue, offering to redeem and praying that the premises may be reconveyed to him, the court is authorized, if the facts warrant it, to declare that the deed, absolute in its terms, was intended as a mortgage, and to prescribe the terms of redemption and reconveyance. Such judgment is as binding upon the grantor in respect to the redemption, as upon the grantee in respect to the character of the instrument and the conveyance. It is one of the incidents of a mortgage that where the mortgagor seeks the aid of a court of equity in effecting a redemption, the court may prescribe the terms of the redemption. ’ ’

27 Cyc., p. 1859, states the rule as follows:

“Where the equity is found to be with the complainant, the proper and usual form of the decree is that he be allowed to redeem upon the payment of the sum found to be due, within a reasonable time to be fixed by the court, and that upon such payment the mortgage shall be adjudged to be satisfied, but that in default of payment that bill shall be dismissed.”

And on page 1862 says:

“In settling a decree for redemption, tüe terms and conditions rest very much in the discretion of the court as exercised upon the.facts of each particular case. But the decree should find the exact amount due or necessary to redeem, and condition the redemption upon its payment within a fixed and limited time, the period being a matter for the court’s discretion, subject to the proviso that it should not be unreasonably short. ’ ’

From the holding of numerous authorities it seems that the general rule is that it is not necessary that there be any provision in the decree for the sale of the property when the court finds the deed and agreement to be a mortgage because the action is not an action to foreclose, and therefore the usual order of sale in foreclosure cases is not required. (Cowing v. Rogers, 34 Cal. 648; Cline v. Robbins, 112 Cal. 581, 44 Pac. [87]*871023; Mack v. Hill, 28 Mont. 99, 72 Pac. 307; Decker v. Patton, 120 Ill. 464, 11 N. E. 897; Martin v. Ratcliff, 101 Mo. 254, 20 Am. St. 601, 13 S. W. 1051; Rodman v. Quick, 211 Ill. 546, 71 N. E. 1087.)

In Decker v. Patton, 120 Ill. 464, 11 N. E. 897, the court, in answer to the suggestion that the decree should have ordered the sale of the property, says:

“Had this been a bill foreclosing a mortgage, and had a decree been rendered cutting off the rights of the parties in interest without a sale of the mortgaged premises, and denying the redemption provided by statute, then there might be force in the argument. ’ ’

In Martin v. Ratcliff, 101 Mo. 254, 20 Am. St. 601, 13 S. W. 1051, it is said:

“Our statute concerning mortgages and deeds of trust contemplates a sale of the premises in all suits brought to foreclose such instruments, and a strict foreclosure in any such case would be erroneous on its face. There is no doubt but that the court may, on a petition to redeem, direct a sale of the premises in the event the redemption money is not paid within the specified time. And in such eases the sale may be ordered, though there is no specific prayer therefor either in the petition or answer.

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Bluebook (online)
117 P. 408, 20 Idaho 80, 1911 Ida. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/machold-v-farnan-idaho-1911.