Nash v. Adams

56 N.W. 241, 55 Minn. 46, 1893 Minn. LEXIS 136
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedOctober 10, 1893
DocketNos. 8197 and 8198
StatusPublished

This text of 56 N.W. 241 (Nash v. Adams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nash v. Adams, 56 N.W. 241, 55 Minn. 46, 1893 Minn. LEXIS 136 (Mich. 1893).

Opinion

Collins, J.

From the findings of fact herein it does not appear that any of the issues raised by the answer of C. A. Smith & Co. in the mortgage foreclosure action have ever been determined by the court, or otherwise disposed of. Again, in the action brought February 27, 1890, by the State S. & D. Co. to foreclose its lien, the respective rights and interests of the plaintiff corporation, lien claimant, Nash, the mortgagee, Adams, the owner, and C. A. Smith & Co., lien claimants, were brought in question by an allegation in' the complaint that the defendants Nash, Adams, Smith, and Pillsbury had, or claimed to have, some claim or interest in the involved premises, but said claim or interest was inferior to that of the plaintiff corporation. The court found the lien of the State S. & D. Co., plaintiff, superior to the mortgage. It found the facts with reference to the lien claimed by C. A. Smith & Co., and that an action of foreclosure had been brought by that firm; that a judgment had been rendered, and a sale of the premises had, whereby the lien claim of C. A. Smith & Co. had been satisfied. Among other conclusions of law was one that the lien claims of the plaintiff corporation and said C. A. Smith [51]*51■& Co. were co-ordinate. On these findings judgment was entered, and in accordance therewith, as before stated, December 19, 1890. This was about one year after plaintiff Nash had caused judgment to be entered in his mortgage foreclosure action against the mortgagor only. It is urged by appellant Nash that, as he defaulted in the State S. & D. Co. lien action, having wholly failed to appear, he is not bound by that part of the judgment which determined that the liens of C. A. Smith & Co. and the State S. & D. Co. were coordinate, the point being that the rank of these two lien claims could not be and was not brought in question by the complaint, nor was it in issue in the action, as 0. A. Smith & Co. failed to answer. We are not obliged to discuss this claim, for Nash, although in default in the action, appeared subsequent to the rendition of judgment by appealing therefrom to this court. The judgment was affirmed, and, whether right or wrong, concluded appellant upon every point determined. Afterwards he moved the court below to vacate and set aside that part of the findings and of the judgment which passed upon and determined in respect to the lien claim of O. A. Smith & Co. The court denied the motion. No appeal was taken, and the time for appealing had expired when this action was begun. Later plaintiff availed himself of the right of redemption provided for in this judgment, and in the present action relied on the redemption made as evidence of his title to the property. In his mortgage foreclosure proceedings Nash had before this temporarily abandoned the prosecution of his assertion that the mortgage lien was superior to that of the defendants material men. He had also taken an appeal from the judgment which expressly fixed the rank of the respective liens, but failed to overturn the judgment in any of its features, or even to secure a modification. Finally, he redeemed from a sale made on the judgment, and in this action asserts an interest acquired thereby. His claim through redemption proceedings is no other or different than that which would have been held by the State S. & D. Co. had no redemption been made. He is concluded by every part of the judgment, as are all other parties thereto. By it the amount then due to C. A. Smith & Co. was determined; and it was also decreed, in effect, that their lien olnim was prior, and therefore superior, to plaintiff’s mortgage. As between the parties, these questions are at rest as fully as are those [52]*52respecting the amount due to, and the relative position of the claim of, the State S. & D. Co. Here the judgment stopped, however. In none of the proceedings has the plaintiff been deprived of his right to redeem from the lien held by C. A. Smith & Co. There has been no foreclosure of their lien as to him, for nowhere has there been even an attempt to set in motion the period of time within which he has a right to redeem from the sale made to Smith and Pillsbury. This might easily have been done in their action to foreclose by making Nash a defendant, but it was not. It might have, and probably would have, been done in the plaintiff’s action to foreclose his mortgage had the respective rights of all parties been determined therein, as invited by plaintiff’s complaint. Of course, the period of time within which Nash would have to redeem from the sale could be fixed in the present action, its express purpose being to determine the nature and extent of the adverse claim to the premises made by Smith and Pillsbury.

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Bluebook (online)
56 N.W. 241, 55 Minn. 46, 1893 Minn. LEXIS 136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nash-v-adams-minn-1893.