Nelson v. Southworth

144 P. 835, 93 Kan. 532, 1914 Kan. LEXIS 467
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 12, 1914
DocketNo. 19,077
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 144 P. 835 (Nelson v. Southworth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nelson v. Southworth, 144 P. 835, 93 Kan. 532, 1914 Kan. LEXIS 467 (kan 1914).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Benson, J.:

The defendants appeal from a judgment canceling two notes, and mortgages securing them, made by the plaintiff and his wife to the defendant Southworth.

The following facts appear either from the undisputed evidence or are established by the findings and decisions of the district court. On January 1, 1907, the plaintiff borrowed $2500 from the defendant South-worth, and gave two promissory notes therefor, one for $2500, payable in five years with interest at 6 per cent per annum, payable semiannually, secured by mortgages on his farm of the same date, made by himself and wife. On the same date he gave to Southworth another promissory note for $187.50 secured by a second mortgage, referred to in the evidence as a commission mortgage. The $2500 note and mortgage were [534]*534assigned to Minnie L. Wilcox in the year 1910. Payments of interest were made to Southworth and by him transmitted to Mrs. Wilcox after she became the owner. In a few instances the remittances were made to her husband for her.

On December 20, 1911, Southworth wrote to the plaintiff:

“Your loan, principal $2500.00, and interest $87.50 will be due Jan. 1st. This money is due in our office at that date. Make your arrangements in ample time to get the money here by Jan. 1st. We could not possibly under any circumstances extend this loan.”

On January 15, 1912, Southworth again wrote to the plaintiff:

“Your letter of Jan. 3rd. was duly received. You have been very slow in the payment of your interest and that is the reason I do not want to make you a new loan. Your interest which came due on Jan. 1st, is still unpaid. This now amounts to $88.20. Send this in by return mail.”

About January 1 Mrs. Wilcox, who lives at Abilene, called up Southworth, whose office is in the same city, in regard to this loan, and was informed that Nelson was very slow and that he (Southworth) refused to renew the loan or to let the borrower have any more money. She then conferred with her husband, and afterward informed Southworth that she and her husband would take care of the loan, to which he responded “All right.”

On March 27 Southworth went to the office of his agents, Ross & Waldo, at Ellis, in the vicinity of which the plaintiff resides, to close up a renewal of the loan, which he had in the meantime asked them to negotiate according to the terms of notes and mortgages he had sent to them for the plaintiff and his wife to execute. Upon the request of these agents the plaintiff and his wife came in, but objected to signing the papers for the reason that they had been negotiating with the Wilcoxes to renew or carry the loan. Southworth, however, in[535]*535sisted that they should renew the loan with him, and stated to them that he had paid Wilcox off &nd had the papers in his possession at home, and that Wilcox did not have a thing to do with it; that he would return the papers by the next Saturday; and that the plaintiff must either fix up the papers then or he would foreclose. The plaintiff needed more money, and finally, on South-worth’s agreement to let them have $700 more, he and his wife signed a note and mortgage for $2500 to be due in five years, and a note and mortgage for $700 due in two years, and a commission note and mortgage for $187.50, payable in annual installments, all bearing date January 1, 1912. These are the instruments which the plaintiff asks to have canceled. At the time of this transaction Southworth held a coupon for $68.75 due January 1, 1912, on the old $2500 note, and also the old $187.50 note on which $18.75 was due. He also claimed a credit for $25 on account of the difference between 6 per cent and 10 per cent on the old $2500 note after its maturity. It was the understanding that out of the proceeds of the new $700 note these items and the taxes should be paid and the balance should be turned over to plaintiff as soon as the abstract then in Southworth’s possession at Abilene should be brought down to date. The transaction was to be closed at Ross & Waldo’s office, the money or check to be sent there. Considerable delay occurred and correspondence followed between Southworth and his agents relative to an adjustment of the matter. Each party blamed the other for the delay, but the merits of that controversy need not be considered now. The proceeds of the $700 note were never paid to the plaintiff or sent to Ross & Waldo for him. Finally, on April 18, the plaintiff learned that Southworth did not have the $2500 note, and that it was still held by Mrs. Wilcox. The plaintiff then, on April 22,1912, tendered payment of the coupon and installment on the old loan held by Southworth, and demanded a cancellation of the new notes and mortgages made on March 27. Southworth claimed [536]*536that he had paid or redeemed the old $2500 note, in this way: On or about March 18, 1912, he had received information that the plaintiff was in correspondence with Wilcox. Thereupon on that date he wrote to Mr. Wilcox at Manchester:

“Referring to the Nelson loan we are making this party a new loan through our agent at Ellis and I wish you would send me all of the papers. This loan has been drawing 10% since the 1st of Jan. and as I computed the interest up to today it amounts to $54.16 and I herewith enclose a check for the principal and interest, $2554.16.”

The check referred to was enclosed in the letter. This is the explanation of his statement to the plaintiff when the new papers were made that he had paid off the old loan. He testified that his primary reason for doing this was to protect his prior lien for the coupon and installment, amounting to $87.50. He testified further:

“Q. And you want the court to understand that for the purpose of protecting a lien amounting to about ninety dollars, you paid up $2550.00 and made this trip out to Ellis ? Ans. No, I was getting pay for making the new loan. I did n’t put up the $2500.00 to protect that lien. You have n’t got that right. No, that is n’t it. I was making a new loan, and getting compensation for doing it. I was n’t putting up the $2500.00 just to save that, but I was making a new loan.”

When this check was received at Mr. Wilcox’s office in Manchester he was absent and did not see it until March 25. He then called up his wife at Abilene, eighteen miles distant, and told her of its receipt, and she told him to return it, which he did on the same day. Sometime afterwards Southworth, still insisting that the check paid the $2500 note, again sent it to Mr. Wilcox, who again returned it. The Wilcoxes also refused to release the mortgage on Southworth’s demand, but Mrs. Wilcox continued to hold the note and mortgage as her own property, and having extended the time of [537]*537payment, loaned to plaintiff $700 more, taking a new mortgage as security.

The $700 note taken on March 27 was indorsed by Southworth, the payee, to the defendant Bixby. The note is in the ordinary negotiable form except that it contains the following stipulation:

“If the interest be not paid when due to become as principal and bear the same rate of interest, payable semiannually.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
144 P. 835, 93 Kan. 532, 1914 Kan. LEXIS 467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nelson-v-southworth-kan-1914.