Morgan v. Linham

86 So. 2d 473, 227 Miss. 584, 1956 Miss. LEXIS 730
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 9, 1956
DocketNo. 40126
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 86 So. 2d 473 (Morgan v. Linham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morgan v. Linham, 86 So. 2d 473, 227 Miss. 584, 1956 Miss. LEXIS 730 (Mich. 1956).

Opinion

McG-ehee, Ü. J.

This appeal is from a decree setting aside and canceling a foreclosure sale of a lot and residence in the City of Laurel made on December 18, 1954, to the appellant John Hezzie Morgan at the purchase price of $510, but against which property there existed liens for taxes and paving assessments, the payment of which was necessary to clear the title, which would cause the property to cost the purchaser at the foreclosure sale a total of approximately $750.

The validity of the foreclosure sale was attacked (1) on the ground that the indebtedness secured by the deed of trust had been fully paid prior to the beginning of the foreclosure proceeding; (2) that the property which the special chancellor found from the evidence was worth between $3,750 and $4,000, was sold for a wholly inadequate consideration as compared with its reasonable market value (the property consisted of a fifty by one hundred foot lot and a 5-room residence on a paved str'eet, equipped with water, gas and electric facilities); and (3) that the appellee Prentiss Linham, who had inherited the property, as the sole heir of his wife Waulene [587]*587Linham, grantee of the mortgagor in the foreclosed deed of trust, executed on February 25, 1948, to the Laurel Federal Savings and Loan Association, a corporation, as beneficiary, J. R. Buchanan, Trustee, securing an indebtedness of $1,100, should have been given actual noticte of the trustee’s sale, since the appellee was then in possession and occupancy of the property, and the-same was sold pursuant to- the published notice of sale, which he was unable to read, and at a time when he was awaiting an answer from the Vice President and Secretary- qf the Laurel Federal Savings and Loan Association as to his receipts for payments on the loan, and which receipts, forty-nine in number, had been delivered to and the said official upon the theory that they would establish the correctness of his contention that he had fully paid the indebtedness secured by the deed of trust, the property having been sold under foreclosure without the owner being advised whether or not the examination of his receipts in connection with the record of the loan had disclosed that he owed a balance of $63.78 on the indebtedness; that these circumstances, coupled with the inadequacy of the price for which the property was sold, were sufficient to justify the action of the special chancellor in setting aside the sale upon reimbursement of the purchaser by the appellee within ten days thereafter to the full extent of his bid, together with legal interest, the sum of $8 paid out in insurance, the recording fee of the trustee’s deed to the appellant, and upon payment of all the costs of the suit by the appellee as complainant in the trial court.

It appears that the deed of trust in question was executed by T. S. Sutton and wife at a time when he owned the property described therein; that shortly after the execution of the deed of trust on February 25, 1948, the wife of T. S. Sutton died, and that then on April 4, 1950, T. S. Sutton, a. widower, conveyed the prope'rty to his daughter Waulene .Linham, and that she there[588]*588after died leaving the appellee Prentiss Linham as her husband and sole heir-at-law; and that there was then a balance due on the indebtedness of approximately $350, and that the title inherited by the appellee was subject to the lien of the said indebtedness.

The appellee did not expressly assume the payment of the said indebtedness, but recognizing the same to be a lien on the property he began making payments of $10 each thereon on the last Monday in March 1952. It was shown that prior to the beginning of the foreclosure proceeding, pursuant to which the sale was made on December 17,1954, he had paid approximately $700 to the mortgagee but that his payments were applied in part to the payment of taxes, paving assessments, insurance, etc., leaving a balance of approximately $65 as found by the chancellor.

After the commencement of the foreclosure proceeding, the mortgagee paid out additional sums for taxes, insurance, etc., leaving a balance due the mortgagee out of the proceeds of the sale, of the sum of $170.91. The trustee paid to the mortgagee the sum of $20.18 for the publication of the notice of sale, a $35 attorney’s fee, and $1.10 revenue stamps, leaving a balance of $282.81 of the proceeds of the sale, a check for which amount was tendered to the appellee but was refused.

The special chancellor found, as aforesaid, that the property was easily worth $3,750 to $4,000; that the amount of the bid in the sum of $510, plus outstanding taxes and paving assessments, would cause the purchaser to have to pay a total of $750 to clear the title, including the amount of his bid at the sale.

The appellee testified that, sometime prior to the commencement of the foreclosure proceeding, he delivered 49 receipts, covering numerous payments of $10 each, some for $12, one for $80, one for $50, and two for $25, to Mr. Curtis Jones, the Vice President and Secretary of the Loan Association, in order that it might be ascer[589]*589tained whether or not he had paid the indebtedness in full, as hereinbefore stated, and the proof further discloses that Mr. Jones suffered a heart attack, was confined in a hospital in Chicago for a few weeks, and that it was during this time that the foreclosure sale was had; that the appellee Prentiss Linham (commonly known as “Crip” Linham on account of his being crippled) could not read and did not have actual notice of the publication of the notice of the sale and did not know until he was advised by the purchaser that the sale had taken place. It is not contended that after the receipts for payments had been delivered to Mr. Jones any notice was ever given to the appellee that he still owed a balance of $63.78. Subsequent to the foreclosure sale the receipts were found in the safe of Mr. Jones and came into the possession of the mortgagee whose attorney tendered the same to the attorney for the appellee after the property had been sold under the foreclosure.

In view of this testimony the special chancellor found as a fact and as a conclusion from the facts that since the mortgagee had originally loaned $1,100 on the property and it had been paid down to about $350 at the time it was inherited by the appellee, and that during the next two years thereafter he paid about $700 to the mortgagee and was indebted to the mortgagee in the amount of only $65 at the time the foreclosure proceeding was commenced, as found by the chancellor, and was contending to Mr. Jones that his indebtedness had been fully paid “and for the purpose of establishing this fact, he had turned over to one of the officers of the corporation (Mr. Jones) his receipts to be checked and that he believed the receipts were being checked at the time of the foreclosure, it is inconceivable to me to believe that the complainant was not deceived and misled, and as a result of this belief lost his property. Certainly, if he had not believed that his claim of payment was being considered, he would have had no trouble raising $65 on a [590]*590piece of property easily worth $3,750, and had he known of the sale and had not depended upon his belief that his receipts were being checked, he would have borrowed the money and paid up his indebtedness. I feel sure that his loss resulted not from any intentional fraud on the part of anyone, but from the illness of the official of the corporation to whom he had submitted his receipts, and which illness resulted in a failure to advise the complainant of the true amount of his indebtedness of $65.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 So. 2d 473, 227 Miss. 584, 1956 Miss. LEXIS 730, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morgan-v-linham-miss-1956.