Miller v. St. Louis Union Trust Co.

178 N.E. 1, 202 Ind. 688, 1931 Ind. LEXIS 45
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 14, 1931
DocketNo. 25,049.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 178 N.E. 1 (Miller v. St. Louis Union Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. St. Louis Union Trust Co., 178 N.E. 1, 202 Ind. 688, 1931 Ind. LEXIS 45 (Ind. 1931).

Opinion

Myers, J.

This is an appeal from an order of the court appointing a receiver in a mortgage foreclosure proceeding to collect the rents and profits from the mortgaged land after decree but prior to sale and during the year allowed for redemption.

The prominent facts in this case, briefly stated, are that appellee St. Louis Union Trust Company, on June 12, 1925, commenced suit on a note and to foreclose a real-estate mortgage securing the same. The note and mortgage were executed by appellees Reed and Reed, who thereafter, by deed, conveyed the mortgaged premises to appellee Bond, who, prior to this suit, conveyed the land to appellant George T. Miller, present record-title owner. The unverified complaint contained allegations relative to the appointment of a receiver and prayed that one be appointed, but, on motion of appellant George T. Miller, these allegations, on October 6,1925, the date the foreclosure proceedings were docketed for hearing, were, by the court, stricken out. Immediately following this action of the court, the record discloses what appears to be an explanatory statement as follows: “Plaintiff shows the filing on October 2nd, 1925, of a verified application for the appointment of a receiver, without notice, in these words, to wit. ” Then follows a copy of the application, verified by an affiant “as he is informed and verily believes.” Its title and docket number are the same as that of the original complaint. There is no order-book entry showing the filing of the application. It was indorsed “Filed Oct. 2,1925, W. F. Hoover, Clerk, Pulaski Circuit Court.” Appel *691 lants Miller and Miller then filed a separate and several answer in general denial to the complaint. Thereupon, the pending cause was submitted to the court for trial, which resulted in the usual final decree.

At the time and following the entry of the decree, it appears that, on motion, “plaintiff’s application for the appointment of a receiver” was submitted to the court for trial over the objection of appellants, who appeared specially and only for that purpose. The court then proceeded to hear the evidence adduced in support of the application, and, being sufficiently advised, found “that a receiver should be appointed to take charge of the real estate and account for the rents and profits therefrom during the year of redemption, ” to which appellants reserved an exception, and, over their objection, the court rendered judgment and appointed a receiver, to which action of the court appellants excepted. The second day, October 8, after the trial and the appointment of a receiver, appellants moved the court to modify its finding and judgment appointing a receiver by striking it out and expunging it from the record. Errors are assigned on the overruling of the objections to the submission of the application for trial; the overruling of the “objections to the judgment and order appointing a receiver”; and the overruling of the motion to modify..

The first error is not well assigned, for the reason no cause was suggested to the court for a delay. The second error is subject to criticism for uncertainty, but since the record discloses a proper basis for the conclusion that this assignment was evidently intended to challenge the order of the court appointing a receiver, we may regard it as sufficient to question the proceedings which resulted in the appointment. Sullivan Electric, etc., Co. v. Blue (1895), 142 Ind. 407, 409, 41 N. E. 805; Hursh v. Hursh (1884), 99 Ind. 500. Inasmuch as we are only concerned with the action of *692 the court in appointing a receiver, and the second assignment questions that action, the third error is unimportant.

When the attention of the court was first called to the application for a receiver, the cause of action to which it was ancillary was still pending, but no steps were taken thereon until immediately after the court had announced its findings and had formally pronounced judgment in the main action. The court was in regular session and appellants had answered the complaint after the allegations relative to a receiver had been stricken out. They appeared specially and objected to the submission of the application for trial, but, at the conclusion of this hearing, for anything appearing, they entered a general appearance and objected to the appointment of a receiver and took an exception to the order of appointment. The mere fact that the application1 prayed for the appointment of a receiver without notice does not overcome the record-showing that appellants had notice and were actually in court making objections to the proceedings and reserving exceptions to the various judicial steps.

Having determined that appellants were in court upon sufficient notice of the application, this case must be distinguished from that class of cases where the appointment was made without notice. It must be kept in mind that the court found that a receiver should be appointed only for the year of redemption. The judgment was that a receiver be appointed “to receive and account for the rents and profits from said real estate pending sheriff’s sale and during the year of redemption. ” There was no motion to modify the judgment in conformity with the finding. Hence, we have the single question: Was the court justified in making the order appointing a receiver?

*693 In this jurisdiction, it is quite well settled that courts of equity may, in proper cases, appoint receivers to secure the application of the rents and profits before and after sale in mortgage foreclosure proceedings. We have a statute giving courts of equity this power when it appears that the mortgaged property “is in danger of being lost, removed or materially injured, or when such property is not sufficient to discharge the mortgage debt,” or when it is necessary “to.protect or preserve, during the time allowed for redemption, any real estate or interest therein sold on execution or order of sale, and to secure to the person entitled thereto the rents and profits thereof.” §1300 Burns 1926, els. 4, 6.

It appears from the allegations of the application that neither the mortgagors nor the present owner of the mortgaged land resided thereon; that they were not residents of Pulaski County; that the taxes on the land were permitted to go delinquent and the trust company was required to pay them in order to protect its mortgage security; that the mortgaged premises, describing 200 acres, would not sell for a sufficient sum to satisfy plaintiff’s debt; that the improvements on the farm were deteriorating, and, unless a receiver was appointed to take charge of and manage the same, the land would lay idle during the year of redemption and continue to deteriorate until it would be impossible to sell the same for a sufficient sum to pay and discharge the indebtedness due the plaintiff; that all the defendants are insolvent and a deficiency judgment would be uncollectable.

At the trial, October 6, the evidence submitted to obtain a receiver was not contested. The only 'proven material facts were: That the fair cash market value of the 200 acres of land covered by the mortgage was between $60 and $65 per acre; improvements—fences about all down, posts and wire rotten, and the physical condition of the buildings bad; no one will furnish ma *694

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 N.E. 1, 202 Ind. 688, 1931 Ind. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-st-louis-union-trust-co-ind-1931.