National Valley Bank v. Kanawha Banking & Trust Co.

145 S.E. 432, 151 Va. 446, 1928 Va. LEXIS 245
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedNovember 15, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 145 S.E. 432 (National Valley Bank v. Kanawha Banking & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Valley Bank v. Kanawha Banking & Trust Co., 145 S.E. 432, 151 Va. 446, 1928 Va. LEXIS 245 (Va. 1928).

Opinion

West, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case arises out of the suit of J. A. Kennedy’s Creditors v. J. A. Kennedy, et als., which was instituted [448]*448to subject the lands of J. A. Kennedy and wife to the payment of the liens binding thereon. The decree complained of was entered on November 22, 1927.

Among the parcels of real estate owned by J. A. Kennedy were the “Montgomery Hall” tract of 168 acres, which was composed of a tract of 119 acres and a tract of forty-nine and one-quarter acres, respectively; and the “Bear Wallow” tract containing 204 acres and twelve poles.

By deed of October 29, 1914, Pearl E. Sutler conveyed the “Bear Wallow” tract to Rudolph Bumgardner, trustee, to secure the payment of five bonds of $2,000.00 each, signed by Pearl E. Sutler and payable to J. B. O’Connell. Pearl E. Sutler later conveyed this land to H. P. Hansberger. On October 2, 1918, Hansberger conveyed the land to J. A. Kennedy.

On May 15, 1920, J. A. Kennedy and wife conveyed the tract of land to H. O. Campbell who executed a deed of trust conveying the property to H. C. Carter, trustee, to secure the payment of eight bonds aggregating $41,000.00, the deed of trust reciting that the bonds were payable to said John A. Kennedy, or order, seven of them being for $5,000.00 each and one for $6,000.00. Each grantee in thq foregoing deeds, except the trustee, assumed the payment of the lien in favor of J. B. O’Connell’s estate, which still remains unpaid for the principal sum of $8,000.00 and interest.

On October 27, 1920; the $41,000.00 of bonds were assigned by Kennedy to the Kanawha Banking and Trust Company, as collateral security to his note for $20,000.00, which was held by that company. There is now due upon said notes a balance of $5,500.00. The collateral bonds were not paid at or after maturity, and on June 4, 1925, they were sold at public auction, as per the provisions of the collateral agreement, and [449]*449were purchased by Kanawha Banking and Trust Company, the present owner.

On February 11, 1921, H. C. Carter, trustee in the deed of trust from H. O. Campbell, securing the payment of the eight bonds held by the Kanawha Banking and Trust Company, conveyed the property to J. A. Kennedy. This deed refers to the deed of trust from Campbell to Carter, trustee, and recites default in the payment of interest instalments, and of the first bond, “making the entire debt due and payable in full, and required the said trustee to proceed to foreclose said deed of trust.”

The deed further recites that the property was sold to J. A. Kennedy by public auction, after due advertisement, at the sum of $35,000.00.

The fact that Carter, trustee, so far as the record disclosed, made no settlement of his accounts, as required by Virginia Code, section 5404, was of itself a circumstance which suggested the prudence of further investigation.

On October 30, 1922, J. A. Kennedy and wife conveyed the said “Bear Wallow” tract of land to Chas. S. Hunter, trustee, to secure the payment of a bond signed by J. A. Kennedy and payable to the National Valley Bank, or order, for the sum of $14,000.00. On October 31, 1922, the National Valley Bank discounted Kennedy’s note for $14,000.00 with the $14,000.00 deed of trust bond attached thereto as collateral security.

In 1914, J. A. Kennedy and wife conveyed eleven tracts of land to Elder and Bright, trustees, to secure the payment of $40,000.00. Subsequently the debt was reduced to $8,000.00, which was assigned to R. E. Borum in 1916, and is now held by him. All of the land was released from the deed of trust lien except [450]*450the tract of forty-nine and one-quarter acres and a tract of 119 acres, which composed the “Montgomery Hall” tract. On December 6, 1916, Kennedy conveyed the forty-nine and one-quarter acre tract to E. J. Wiley. On April 2, 1917, Kennedy and wife conveyed nine tracts of land, including the 119 acre tract and a tract of seventy-five acres north of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, to Chas. S. Hunter, trustee, to secure the payment of a debt of $14,000.00 due the National Valley Bank. This deed expressly excepted from the conveyance the forty-nine and one-quarter acres conveyed to R. J. Wiley.

Kennedy became financially embarrassed and numerous judgments were obtained and docketed against him, which were liens upon his equity of redemption in the foregoing lands, one of which is a judgment in favor of appellee, G. A. Mae Queen.

Hunter, trustee, sold the seventy-five acre tract under the terms of the trust deed. According to the records in the clerk’s office, Borum then held a first lien on the 119 and the forty-nine and one-quarter acre tracts, the National Valley Bank a second lien on the 119 acre tract but no lien upon the forty-nine and one-quarter' acre traet. Next to these deeds of trust liens there are certain judgment liens, including one in favor of G. A. MacQueen, which are binding upon Kennedy’s equity of redemption in these lands and a second lien upon the forty-nine and one-quarter acre tract.

By consent of parties the 119 acres and the forty-nine and one-quarter acres were sold as one tract, with the agreement that the net proceeds of the sale be so allocated that $22,258.11 is allocated to the 119 acre traet as the proceeds of its sale, and $2,004.84 to the forty-nine and one-quarter acre tract as the proceeds of its sale. This money is to be distributed among the [451]*451lien creditors in accordance with their respective priorities.

The appellant, National Valley Bank of Staunton, makes two assignments of error to the decree complained of.

The first assignment is: “In its distribution of the fund arising from the sale of the Montgomery Hall tract, consisting of two parcels, the court should have applied (1) all of the proceeds of sale of the forty-nine acre parcel, which was not subject to ' the National Valley Bank’s lien, toward the payment of the prior Borum lien binding it, exonerating to that extent the proceeds of sale of the 119 acre parcel, which was subject to, first, the Borum lien, and, second, the bank’s lien; (2) the proceeds of the 119 acre parcel to the payment of the residue of the Borum lien, and then, of the bank’s lien; and should have overruled the exceptions of Worthington Hardware Company, Incorporated, and G. A. MacQueen in that respect.”

This assignment involves the equitable doctrine of the marshalling of assets. This doctrine is applied only where one creditor has a lien against two funds or estates, belonging to the same person, and a junior lienor has a lien against only one of the same funds or estates. The two properties must belong to the same person at the time the person who is invoking the doctrine secured his lien. Marshalling will never be enforced to give a creditor a lien on land on which he has never had a lien, by depriving a third party of a statutory lien.

In Harrington v. Taylor, 176 Cal. 802, 169 Pac. 690, the court said: “But a lien claimant may invoke this equitable principle of marshalling assets only when it will benefit him without injuring others and if this cannot be done then equity will but follow the law. The [452]*452principle of marshalling assets cannot be invoked or applied so as to defeat statutory rights.”

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Bluebook (online)
145 S.E. 432, 151 Va. 446, 1928 Va. LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-valley-bank-v-kanawha-banking-trust-co-va-1928.