Mercantile Realty Co. v. Stetson

94 N.W. 859, 120 Iowa 324
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMay 13, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 94 N.W. 859 (Mercantile Realty Co. v. Stetson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mercantile Realty Co. v. Stetson, 94 N.W. 859, 120 Iowa 324 (iowa 1903).

Opinion

Deemee, J.

The property which defendants were about to sell on special execution at one time belonged to the Northern Investment Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Kentucky. It was incumbered by mortgages amounting in the aggregate to about $400,000. On or about April 13, 1895, defendant Stetson commenced'action to foreclose one of these mortgages, for something like $23,000, and in said action caused a writ of attachment to issue, which it is claimed was levied upon the property in controversy. Two days prior to that, and on the 11th day of April, one Harrison brought suit in the Woodbury district court against the investment company and Stetson to foreclose a mortgage upon the property for something like $100,000. On May 16, 1895, an order was made in this last mentioned case appointing one Black a general receiver of all the property in controversy. Black took possession of the property, collected rents, paid taxes, and interest on mortgages, made repairs, and otherwise cared for and managed the property, until December 12th of that year, when he resigned, whereupon C. D. Foster was appointed in his stead. Foster continued to manage and care for the property and during his management advanced about $9,000 in payment of interests, taxes, etc., part of which he had borrowed, and the remainder he [326]*326advanced from bis own funds. On August 3, 1896, be filed in the district court an application for authority to sell the real estate in controversy, subject to the mortgage and tax liens. This application came on for bearing on September 1st. Defendant Stetson appeared thereto by ■his attorneys, and asked for a continuance until the next day, which was granted. After a full hearing, and on the 19th day of September, 1896, the court made an order authorizing the receiver to sell the property for cash, subject to all mortgages thereon; said sale to be at auction and without redemption. The order for the sale was presented to Messrs. Shull & Farnsworth, who were -Stetson’s attorneys, and they indorsed thereon: “O. K. Shull and Farnsworth.” A few days prior to the order for the sale, Stetson recovered judgment in his attachment case, and the decree provided that the attached property should be sold as required by law. Shortly before this decree and judgment was rendered, and on the 8th day of September, 1896, Stetson filed a claim based thereon with the receiver, and asked that it be established as a claim against the property of the Northern Investment Company. Upon submission of the claim to the district court, the following order was made: “Now, to wit, on this 17th day of September, 1896, the report of 0. D. Foster, as receiver, as to the claims filed with him, is submitted, and the court, having received said report, finds that all of the claims therein reported should be allowed 1 as general claims, except the one in favor of A. L. Stetson, and that, as to that claim, he be authorized and directed to take an appeal to the Supreme Court of Iowa from the decree rendered upon which said claim is based, and that hearing upon said report as to .■ aid claim shall be continued, to which said order and ruling the said A. L. Stetson excepts.” On September 26, 1896, the receiver sold the property in controversy, after due not ce, to the plaintiff herein, a corporation organized under the laws of this [327]*327state, for the aggregate sum of $5,500, which was the highest and best bid therefor. One of Stetson’s attorneys attended the sale, but made no objection thereto. The sale was reported to the court and duly approved, and a receiver’s deed was executed, conveying the property to the plaintiff. Thereafter Stetson caused a special execution to issue on his judgment against the Northern Investment Company, which was levied on the property in controversy, and under which it was advertised to be sold, when this action was brought to restrain the sale.

Counsel first discuss the question as to whether or not there was any valid levy of the Stetson attachment on the real estate in controversy. They claim that no notice of r attach-id?tyT¿f’SIal" defense. the levy was served upon the tenants in possession when the attachment was levied, This question seems to be settled adversely to them in Foster v. Davenport, 109 Iowa, 329. True, that action involved personal property only, but there wasbuton9 attachment, which was levied on real and personal property at one and the same time; and the defects, if there were any applied to the levies on both real and personal property. Moreover, the case in which the levy was made came to this court on appeal, and was here affirmed. Stetson v. Northern Investment Co., 104 Iowa, 393. No question was made in that case of the validity of the levy. Another cogent and unanswerable reason why plaintiff may not assert the invalidity of the levy is found in the fact that in the original case the defendant Northern Investment Company filed a counterclaim against Stetson. See 104 Iowa, 393. Plaintiff is a purchaser deriving its title to the property from the Northern Investment Company, and, under the facts above recited, we think it clear that it cannot plead the invalidity of the attachment. Schoonover v. Osborne, 108 Iowa, 453; Wright v. Mahaffey, 76 Iowa, 96; Baxter v. Myers, 85 Iowa, 328. We are not to be understood as holding that the validity of the [328]*328attachment on the real estate has in fact been expressly adjudicated in any preceding case. All that we hold is that plaintiff, under the facts above recited, is not entitled to question it. The Northern Investment Company was content to treat the levy as valid, and, under the facts disclosed by this record, plaintiff should not be permitted to plead the invalidity thereof.

II. The next question for consideration is the alleged estoppel of record. A. L. Stetson was made a defendant in the Harrison foreclosure case, in which a receiver was 2. receivers: ciaSI: es-toPpei. appointed for the property. Not only so, but he voluntarily filed his claim, on which he afterward obtained judgment, with the receivers. This claim was not allowed by the court, but the receivers were authorized and directed to appeal from the decree in which the judgment was rendered, and the hearing on the report as to that claim was continued. No appeal was ever taken, as we understand it, from the order authorizing the receivers to appeal, and continuing the hearing on Stetson’s claim, which had been filed with the receivers. Foster, as receiver, made application in August of the year 1896 to sell the property held by him as receiver, and hearing of this application was. set for September 1st. On the last named date, Stetson appeared by attorneys, and asked for and secured a continuance, which was granted. The hearing on Stetson’s claim filed with the receiver was on the 17th day of September, and, as we^have seen, the receiver was authorized to take an appeal from the judgment obtained by Stetson, and the further hearing of his claim was continued. On the 19th day of September the application of the receiver for authority to sell was submitted, and sustained in the following language: “It is therefore ordered that said receiver be, and he is hereby, authorized, empowered, and directed to sell the real' estate of the Northern Investment Company and its trustees at public auction, for cash, subject [329]

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Bluebook (online)
94 N.W. 859, 120 Iowa 324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mercantile-realty-co-v-stetson-iowa-1903.