Musser v. First Nat. Bank

147 So. 783, 165 Miss. 873, 1933 Miss. LEXIS 311
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 1, 1933
DocketNo. 30139.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 147 So. 783 (Musser v. First Nat. Bank) 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
Musser v. First Nat. Bank, 147 So. 783, 165 Miss. 873, 1933 Miss. LEXIS 311 (Mich. 1933).

Opinion

*879 McGowen, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

On March 29, 1919, W. L. Elledge executed three notes to H. C. Musser, due in one, two, and three years thereafter, and secured payment of said notes by a trust deed on the land here involved.

Thereafter the First National Bank took a second trust deed on the same property to secure an indebtedness to it, and from time to time the bank renewals which recited that it was a second trust deed, the last renewal being on December 30, 1927.

, Oln July 18, 1929, W. L. Elledge executed to P. W. North a trust deed on the same property which appears, on its face, to be a first lien, and North delivered to Elledge his check for three thousand eight hundred sixty-six dollars on the First National Bank of Corinth, which check Elledge indorsed to the bank in payment of his indebtedness to it and which action so appears on the bank’s books.

The three notes of Elledge to Musser were barred by the statute of limitations, the first one on March 29, 1926, the second on March 29,1927, and the third one on March 29, 1928.

On June 20, 1928, Elledge wrote Musser a letter in which he agreed that he would not plead the statute of limitations, and Musser now alleges that this latter constitutes a renewal of the obligation.

During the period from March 29, 1926, until six *880 months after March 29, 1928, there was no entry of renewal or extension placed on the margin of the record of Elledge’s trust deed to Musser as required by section 2154, Code of 1930, but in the latter part of 1930, after the debt had become barred by the statute of limitations, Ely B. Mitchell, as attorney made an entry on the margin of the Musser trust deed that Elledge had agreed not to plead the statute of limitations. This entry was not attested by the clerk.

On December 12, 1928, North sold and transferred Elledge’s note and trust deed, the note for three thousand eight hundred sixty-six dollars, to the First National Bank, and in 1931 Mitchell, as substituted trustee, was proceeding to foreclose the Musser deed of trust, when ihe First National Bank filed its bill seeking to have its deed of trust declared a first lien on the property, and to prevent a sale thereof, alleging that a sale under that deed of trust which appeared of record to be barred, as did the note it secured, would be void, and later, Mitchell having proceeded to sell the property, the bank amended its bill and alleged that the property had been sold, and that the sale was void, and prayed that the deed of trust held by it, which it had acquired from North, be foreclosed, and that Musser’s claim, if any, be subordinated to the bank’s claim. It also alleged that North had taken the deed of trust on the land in good faith for a valuable consideration without notice, and that the bank had acquired North’s interest in Elledge’s note in good faith, for a valuable consideration.

Musser charged fraud in the transaction between Elledge and North and the First National Bank, and also charged that the bank and North had notice of the extension and he made his answer a cross-bill, and sought foreclosure. The material allegations of his cross-bill were denied by the bank, and on the trial the above facts were developed.

The chancellor entered a decree declaring the Musser *881 deed of trust void in so far as it affected the North deed of trust held by the First National Bank, and ordered a foreclosure of the First National Bank’s deed of trust to satisfy the debt. The chancellor further found and ordered that, if there was any excess, after the payment of the bank’s debt, it should be paid to Musser, in effect holding that as between Musser and Elledge the letter alleged to be a renewal was binding, and canceled the sale by Mitchell under the Musser deed of trust.

There was no evidence of any actual knowledge by Mitchell, or the First National Bank, except such as was shown by the record; all the deeds of trust having been duly placed of record immediately after their execution.

There was no evidence tending to show any fraud or collusion between North and the bank, unless it be said that North was a director of the bank, and, as such, knew of the second deed of trust held by the bank against Elledge.

We might well rest this decision upon the finding of fact by the chancellor that North was a subsequent purchaser for a valuable consideration without notice of any effort to renew the deed of trust by Elledge in favor of Musser. Much, however, is said in the brief of the appellant about constructive notice and the facts of the record requiring further investigation by North and the bank, and that such inquiry would have developed the alleged letter of extension written by Elledge to Musser on June 20, 1928.

We think, in the light of the facts as disclosed by the record, there is no merit in the contention that either North or the bank are bound to have known what appeared aliunde the face of the record. There is no question but that the five hundred dollars first due on the Musser debt had been barred for two years; that another five hundred dollars had been barred for more than one year, and that, when the alleged so-called renewal was written by Elledge, the last five hundred, the third note, *882 had been barred for about three months. 'Where a debt is barred, the mortgage cannot be enforced. Section 2290, Code 1930; Huntington v. Bobbitt, 46 Miss. 528; Maddux v. Jones, 51 Miss. 531.

This series of notes was barred without question six years from their respective due dates. There was no effort at a renewal or extension until after the notes had been barred thereby the lien of the deed of trust and the notes was dead.

Section 2313 Code 1930, reads as follows: “The conn pletion of the period of limitation herein prescribed to bar any action, shall defeat and extinguish the right as well as the remedy,- but the former legal obligation shall be a sufficient consideration to uphold a new promise based thereon.”

We have not set forth the letter, because, having been written on June 20 by Elledge to Musser, we take it for granted, without so deciding, that this letter would be sufficient to create a new promise to pay the barred debt.

In the ease of Proctor v. Hart, 72 Miss. 288, 16 So. 595, 596, this court held that the effect of the statute was not only to deny the remedy and bar the action, but to extinguish the right itself upon the completion of the period of limitation, and that, where a note was given in an instrument which reserved a vendor’s lien, the giving of the new note does not revive the lien or create a new lien. There the court asked this question: “Was the vendor’s lien revived by the execution of the note to the Harts after the bar of the statute of limitations had attached?” It was answered as follows: “The answer is simple, as it appears to us.

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Bluebook (online)
147 So. 783, 165 Miss. 873, 1933 Miss. LEXIS 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/musser-v-first-nat-bank-miss-1933.