New England Loan & Trust Co. v. Browne

57 S.W. 760, 157 Mo. 116, 1900 Mo. LEXIS 12
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 12, 1900
StatusPublished

This text of 57 S.W. 760 (New England Loan & Trust Co. v. Browne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New England Loan & Trust Co. v. Browne, 57 S.W. 760, 157 Mo. 116, 1900 Mo. LEXIS 12 (Mo. 1900).

Opinion

VALLIANT, J.

This is an action of ejectment for two lots in Kansas City. Plaintiff’s title is derived through a deed of trust executed by Mina Sexton and Warren Sexton, her husband, to John 0. Hall, trustee with power to sell, to secure a bond for $1,800 and interest coupons made by them to the plaintiff, and the trustee’s deed foreclosing the deed of trust.

The defendant set up in his answer what was intended to he an equitable .cross action attacking the validity of the trustee’s sale and the case was tried on that issue. This answer states that the plaintiff’s title is the deed of trust and the trustee’s deed, and avers, that the latter is void because by the terms of the deed of trust the trustee was only authorized to sell in case the grantors were in some default as to its conditions, and “that at the time of the advertising and selling of said premises by said trustee the grantors in said trust deed were not in default of the terms and conditions of said trust deed or any part or portion of the terms and conditions thereof.” That is all there is of the affirmative defense.

Upon the trial the plaintiff introduced in evidence the deed of trust dated May, 1889, the $1,800 bond due June 1, 1894, and past due interest coupons, which deed contained among other things a clause to the effect that any recital in the deed to be made by the trustee thereunder should be taken prima- facie as true; a deed dated 28th March, 1896, from the trustee to Gilbert, reciting default in payment of the bond, a request by the holder to foreclose, advertisement and sale according to the terms of,the deed of trust, and the purchase by Gilbert at the sale; an affidavit showing publication [119]*119of notice; then a deed from Gilbert to the plaintiff, dated March 30, 1896; then certain deeds showing defendant’s title derived from the same source, bnt junior to plaintiff’s; then testimony showing the monthly rental value of the property, and rested. Defendant introduced a written contract between E. P. Sexton and himself and wife, dated September, 1891, whereby Sexton agreed to sell to defendant’s wife the land in suit for $2,200, for which sum defendant and his wife executed their promissory note, and they also assumed and agreed to pay the $1,800 bond secured by the plaintiff’s deed of trust, making the price of the land to defendant and wife $4,000 principal. The $2,200 note was payable in monthly installments of $25 each and secured by deed of trust on the property. At the time of executing this contract Sexton executed his warranty deed conveying the land to defendant’s wife and they executed their note for the $2,200 and deed of trust, and all these documents, as provided by the terms of the written contract, were deposited in a bank in escrow to be delivered when Sexton should obtain a title by foreclosing an intervening incumbrance which he agreed to do, and which he afterwards did, and the documents were delivered respectively. In the written contract Sexton agreed that if defendant so desired he would procure the plaintiff’s $1,800 incumbrance extended for five years without expense.

The whole force of the defense centered in the proposition that Sexton was the' agent of the plaintiff and had authority to make that agreement for extension.

The testimony of defendant tended to show that after he purchased from Sexton the plaintiff had notice of the fact and when the interest on plaintiff’s debt came due notice thereof was sent to defendant Browne. Browne paid his $25 a month to Sexton and supposed Sexton was paying the interest to plaintiff and in point of fact Sexton did so up to about November, 1894, after which he paid nothing, although de[120]*120fendant Browne continued to pay him the monthly installments up to November 1, 1895. Browne testified that it was understood between him and Sexton that out of the monthly installments Sexton would first pay the interest falling due on plaintiff’s debt and apply the balance on the $2,200 note. But the written agreement contains nothing of that kind; it calls for $25 a month to be applied on the $2,200 npte, and defendant to pay the plaintiff’s debt. Defendant testified that in May, 1894, he received a letter from plaintiff “notifying me that the note of $1,800 would soon be due, and to call in and make some arrangement for extending it, pay a little on the note and they would be satisfied to extend it. I immediately took the letter to E. P. Sexton and showed him the letter, and I says, ‘You remember your agreement?’ He says, ‘Yes I will fix that all right; I will go right up and attend to it.’ And that is the last I heard of it until I received 'this letter of February 20, 1896, from the New England Loan and Trust Company, and I went up to see about it.

“Q. Whom did you see ? A. I saw Mr. Gilbert, and I may have seen Mr. Hall, too; I also saw Mr. Alexander.
“Q. Who was Mr. Gilbert? A. He is one of the officials of the New England Loan & Trust Company, I think secretary or assistant secretary.
“Q. State what occurred between you and him? A. Why, he told me that note was long past due and the interest past due. I told him that could not be possible, because Mr. Sexton had assured me it would be extended at the time it came due; and I said, ‘When you wrote me last May, I took it for granted that it was all right as I have been making my payments to Mr. Sexton right along, and from your communication I was led to believe that everything was going along smoothly.’ Then I made a note of the amount of interest on the note: ‘Balance due, $22, December 1, 1894; $72 balance due June 1, 1895; $72 balance due December 1, 1895.’
[121]*121“Q. Prior to that time you bad been paying Mr. Sexton right along according to your contract? A.' Yes, sir; prior to the 20th of February, 1896.
“Q. When you called Mr. Gilbert’s attention to that fact what did he say about it ? A. Mr. Gilbert said Sexton was doing some mighty peculiar things; that he hadn’t paid them the money. I then asked him the question why it was that he had allowed the interest to run that long, as it was unusual to allow interest to run over a year and a half without saying anything about it. ‘Well,’ he said, They were dealing with Mr. Sexton.’
“Q. He said they were dealing with Mr. Sexton ? A. Yes, sir; or words to that effect; I do not mean to give the exact words.”

The only evidence, if it may be so called, of the fact that Sexton was the agent of the plaintiff is the testimony of defendant that Sexton told him so. This was objected to but uppn the promise that other evidence of agency would be introduced the court ruled that what Sexton was said to have said would be received. Then when the plaintiff’s counsel asked the defendant on cross-examination upon what he based his assumption that Sexton was the plaintiff’s agent, he said that Sexton had acted as agent for the plaintiff in connection with some lawsuits before the defendant as justice of the peace. The plaintiff’s evidence as to those lawsuits was that Sexton was connected with a concern that acted as real estate agents, and had procured tenants for plaintiff for some houses it owned, and the plaintiff had one or more suits in the justice court to collect the rents from these tenants, and Sexton attended to those suits.

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Bluebook (online)
57 S.W. 760, 157 Mo. 116, 1900 Mo. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-england-loan-trust-co-v-browne-mo-1900.