New England Securities Co. v. Afflick

291 S.W. 100, 172 Ark. 964, 1927 Ark. LEXIS 94
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 21, 1927
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 291 S.W. 100 (New England Securities Co. v. Afflick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New England Securities Co. v. Afflick, 291 S.W. 100, 172 Ark. 964, 1927 Ark. LEXIS 94 (Ark. 1927).

Opinion

"Wood, J.

The facts are substantially as follows: The West Helena Consolidated Company was placed in the hands of a receiver on or about the 20th day of November, 1921, by orders of the Phillips Chancery Court. A. G-. Burke was appointed receiver. The assets of the company passing into the hands of the receiver consisted .of a street railway, waterworks system, approximately 1,751 acres of farmlands, 549 lots and 20 houses in the city of West Helena, Arkansas. The receiver was directed by the court to operate said company for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the •indebtedness of the company could be liquidated without sale of its properties.

Several years prior to the appointment of a receiver to take charge of the affairs of the West Helena Consolidated Company, the company had mortgaged the farm lands in controversy to the appellant, New England Securities Company, to secure an indebtedness of approximately $50,000, said mortgage indebtedness being evidenced by notes made by the company and secured by four or more separate mortgages on different tracts of land owned by the company. At the time of the receivership proceedings the company was in default in its payment ivith the appellant.

On December 16, 1922, the appellant, New England Securities Company, obtained permission from the chancery court to file its intervention, and did become a party to said proceedings for the purpose of foreclosing its mortgages. This intervention was filed, and the receiver Avas made a party defendant. A decree of foreclosure was taken on the 24th day of January, 1923, foreclosing all of said mortgages and subjecting the farm lands to the payment of the mortgage indebtedness due the appellant. On. April 9, 1923, the receiver filed his petition to vacate the decree of foreclosure rendered on the 24th day of January, 1923. On July 24, 1923, the court sustained the motion to vacate the decree of foreclosure, and did enter of record an order vacating and setting aside said decree. On July 25,- 1923, the New England Securities Company, in order to clear the record, filed its four separate amended interventions. These amended interventions were pending in said court in this case when the sale of the properties was ordered and the receiver directed to make the sale. The decree ordering the sale of the property was entered August 29,1923, and the sale was had November 1, 1923. At this sale the following parties were the highest bidders for certain property belonging to the company, as shown by the receiver’s report of sale, to-wit:

(1). Edwin Bevens was the highest bidder for the waterworks system.

■ (2). Home Mutual Building & Loan Association was the highest bidder for the street railway system.

(3). The farm lands (the property now in controversy) were offered for sale, and, no person having bid at said sale, the property remained unsold.

(4). Fannie M. Hornor was the highest bidder for certain lots in Bichmond Hill.

(5). J. T. Hornor was the highest bidder for blocks 29 and 30 in West Helena, Arkansas.

(6). E. M. Polk was the highest bidder for lot 5, block 94.

(7). E. M. Polk was the highest bidder for city property.

The report of sale held on November 1, 1923, was duly filed on the 26th of November, 1923. The receiver’s report discloses that there were bidders at the receiver’s sale for all of the properties of the West Helena Consolidated Company, except the lands now in controversy..

On the 20th of December, 1923, C. W. Afflick filed in open court his bid offering to purchase, and did bid the sum of $5,000 for all right, title and interest of the West Helena Consolidated 'Company in all real and personal property, except the street railway and waterworks property, book accounts and notes, and tbe cash funds on hand belonging to the company in the hands of the receiver. These items were omitted from the bid of C. W. Afflick. In other words, .Afflick’s bid covered and included only the right, title and interest to certain real estate belonging to the West Helena Consolidated Company, which bid included the lands now in controversy.

The bid of Afflick also included the city property offered by the receiver at the receiver’s sale held bn November 1, 1923, for which E. M. Polk was the highest bidder, and on the 12th of January, 1924, Polk filed a protest against the acceptance of the bid of Afflick in so far as Afflick’s bid related to the property for which he was the highest bidder.

On the 24th day of January, 1924, the Phillips Chancery Court approved the bid of O. W. Afflick, and from this decree of the court E. M. Polk, who was the highest bidder for the city property at the receiver’s sale, prosecuted an appeal to this court. This appeal resulted in the decision of the case of Polk v. Afflick, 168 Ark. 904, 271 S. W. 962. The New England Securities Company was, at the time of said sale, and for several years prior thereto, a party to this proceeding, and did not bid at this receiver’s sale, nor did the appellant, New England Securities Company, appeal from the court’s decree accepting the bid of C. W. Afflick. E. M. Polk was the only party to this proceeding that prosecuted an appeal from the orders of the chancery court rendered on the 24th day of January, 1924. But, on the same day, the court entered a decree allowing appellant to withdraw its interventions and "to institute separate foreclosure proceedings. «

The decision in the case of Polk v. Afflick, supra, was rendered by the court on May 18, 1925, and in that case the court held that Polk, being the highest and best bidder at the receiver’s sale, acquired rights which could not be divested because some other party had offered to advance the bids, and further held that the chancellor erred in rejecting the bid of Polk and accepting the bid of C. W. Afflick. The case was reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with the decision as rendered by this court.

On the 27th day of July, 1925, the case was again submitted to the lower court upon the decision and mandate of the Supreme Court rendered in the case of Polk v. Afflick, and, in pursuance to the mandate of the Supreme Court, the lower court declared E. M. Polk to be the purchaser of all of the city property embraced in the bid of E. M. Polk at the receiver’s sale held on November 1, 1923, and the receiver was directed to make a deed to E. M. Polk for said property. The court, in this same decree as to the farm lands now in controversy, made the following order: '

“That the former order and decree of this court approving- the bid and confirming the purchase of C. W. Afflick of certain real estate, equities of redemption or choses in action, formerly belonging to the West Helena Consolidated Company, be hereby modified so far as the same covers the above described real estate herein decreed to have been purchased by E. M. Polk, but that in all other respects the said original bid and purchase by C. W. Afflick and said original order and decree of this court approving said bid and confirming said purchase are hereby renewed, approved, ratified and confirmed for all the remaining part of said estate, assets, equities of redemption and choses in action.”

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Bluebook (online)
291 S.W. 100, 172 Ark. 964, 1927 Ark. LEXIS 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-england-securities-co-v-afflick-ark-1927.