Miller v. Miller

100 S.W.2d 74, 193 Ark. 362, 1936 Ark. LEXIS 330
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 21, 1936
Docket4-4581
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 100 S.W.2d 74 (Miller v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Miller, 100 S.W.2d 74, 193 Ark. 362, 1936 Ark. LEXIS 330 (Ark. 1936).

Opinion

Smith, J.

On July 15, 1922, Mrs. Geraldine H. Miller, hereinafter referred to as appellee, was indebted to the Union & Mercantile Trust Company in the sum of $16,000, and to secure its payment executed a deed of trust conveying a lot 50 by 140 feet at the corner of West Markham and North Louisiana streets in the city of Little Rock. The note evidencing this debt was due August 1, 1927. Thereafter the Union & Mercantile Trust Company changed its corporate name to the Union Trust Company.

On August 1, 1930, the time of payment of the note was extended to August 1, 1933, and a renewal note was executed by appellee to the Union Trust Company, agent, in the sum of $16,000. This note, like the first one, bore interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually, until maturity, and at the rate of ten per cent, per annum after maturity. Soon after the original loan was made the note which evidenced it was sold to Mrs. Lizzie U. Miller, hereinafter referred to as appellant. The trust company was her agent, and in that capacity collected the interest as it became due on both the original and the renewal notes.

On June 24, 1931, appellee executed a second deed of trust conveying the lot above described to secure an indebtedness of $12,700 due the Union Trust Company. This note was never sold, but was pledged by the trust company to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

On December 27, 1933, appellant instituted foreclosure proceedings for the purpose of foreclosing her deed of trust, and on the following day, upon her motion, a receiver was appointed to take charge of the property. Appellee filed no answer in this suit, but an answer was filed by the trust company, which admitted the priority of appellant’s lien and prayed that any surplus from the sale of said property under the foreclosure proceedings be paid for credit on its mortgage.

A decree of foreclosure was rendered April 2, 1934, which gave appellant judgment for $16,640, and directed that if this debt were not paid within 150 days the lot be sold by the commissioner appointed for that purpose, the surplus, if any, to be paid to the trust company or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, as their interests might appear. The debt was not paid within the time limited, and the commissioner published notice that a sale would be had on September 28, 1934. Upon petition of appellee the court ordered the sale postponed until March 22, 1935, and by other orders subsequently made postponed the sale from March' 22, 1935, to September 27, 1935, and from that date to October 4, 1935, and from that date to October 7, 1935. On the date last mentioned, representations were made by appellee and the state bank commissioner, who was then administering the assets of the trust company, which had become insolvent, that negotiations were progressing to refinance the loan. The court ordered a postponement of the sale to March 27, 1936, but recited in this order that “it will be inequitable to further postpone sale beyond March 27, 1936.”

On March 17, ten days before the date appointed for the sale, appellee filed a separate suit, making all persons interested parties, in which she alleged that the second mortgage to the Union Trust Company securing the debt of $12,700 had been induced by an agreement that the trust company would pay her $100 per month out of the rents which that instrument authorized the trust company to collect, but that only three such payments had been made, although the rents had been regularly collected by the trust company. An accounting was prayed, with a postponement of the sale for that purpose. Appellant filed a demurrer to this complaint, which the court treated, so far as appellant was concerned, as a motion for further extension of time. The motion, insofar as it affected appellant, was overruled, and the cause was continued as to the other defendants, and the commissioner was directed to make sale on March 27, 1936, as had been previously ordered. The sale was made on the date last mentioned, and appellant became the purchaser upon a bid of $15,000 for the property.

The receiver filed a final report, to which further reference will be made, in which he reported his proceedings. Under the orders of the court, he had kept the property fully insured, and had made the semi-annual payments of interest to appellant which had fallen due. He had paid the taxes, so that there had been no default in the interest payments due appellant nor any delinquency of taxes. He had also made certain repairs and alterations, which operated to increase the rental value of the property, -which then amounted to $420 per month. After these payments had been made, together with the costs of the receivership, there remained in his hands the sum of $1,041.55, which, under the order of the court, he paid over to appellant.

The commissioner filed a report of the sale on April 8, 1936, which was approved that day, as was also the commissioner’s deed on the same day. An order finally discharging the receiver was entered April 17, 1936.

"When the orders were made approving the report of sale and the deed executed pursuant thereto the court announced that these orders would be set aside if at any time during the April term, then in session, appellee tendered into the registry of the court the amount of appellant’s judgment, interest and costs. The order approving the sale recited that the property- had sold for a fair and adequate price. This order appears to have been made by consent and in contemplation of all the parties that the debt would be paid pursuant to a plan with which the court and all the parties were familiar before the end of the term of court then in session. However, that finding and the decree of confirmation based thereon was vacated and set aside by the later order made October 3rd at the same term of court, as appears from the original transcript filed by appellant.

A motion was made by appellee, and heard on October 3, 1936, which was the last day of the April term, to set aside the order confirming the sale. At the same time an instrument styled “Waiver” was filed, which recited that appellee submitted to the jurisdiction of the court under the provisions of act 49 of the Acts of 1935, “An act to regulate the foreclosure of mortgages,” and had consented to the rendition at any time of any decree found proper by the court regardless of the provisions of that act. The court made an order on this last day of the April term reciting the finding that arrangements had been made to refinance the loan and the sources from which the money for that purpose would he derived, together with the filing of the waiver agreement above mentioned. Appellant saved exceptions to this order and prayed an appeal therefrom, which was perfected by filing a transcript with the clerk of this court on October 17, 1936.

On October 15, 1936, the court heard testimony on a motion to which we attach but little importance. It did not ask the court to make any additional order, and none was made. Its purpose apparently was to make an order explaining more fully why the court had made the order on October 3, vacating the orders approving the commissioner’s report and his deed. The testimony heard at that time has been brought before us on a writ of certiorari, and we are asked to disregard it, as it was in a proceeding had after the appeal to this court had been prayed and granted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 S.W.2d 74, 193 Ark. 362, 1936 Ark. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-miller-ark-1936.