Norton v. Metropolitan Life Insurance

77 N.W. 298, 74 Minn. 484, 1898 Minn. LEXIS 963
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 7, 1898
DocketNos. 11,391—(143)
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 77 N.W. 298 (Norton v. Metropolitan Life Insurance) 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
Norton v. Metropolitan Life Insurance, 77 N.W. 298, 74 Minn. 484, 1898 Minn. LEXIS 963 (Mich. 1898).

Opinion

CANTY, J.

This is an action to foreclose the first mortgage on the real estate in question. The second mortgage was made to the Central Trust Company, as trustee, to secure the payment of a large number of bonds, all of which are held by the Metropolitan Insurance Company. The insurance company is in fact the holder of the second mortgage or trust deed, and claims to be the owner of the land under a tax title, which, if valid, is paramount to, and free from the lien of, plaintiffs’ mortgage. Plaintiffs’ mortgage was executed and recorded in January, 1887; the defendants’ mortgage in September, 1888. The taxes of 1892 being unpaid, judgment was entered, the land sold for the same and bid in by the state in 1894. In May, 1896, the insurance company took an assignment from the state, and gave due notice of the time of expiration of redemption. No redemption was made.

The trial court found that the tax title is valid, and paramount to the lien of plaintiffs’ mortgage, unless the insurance company “was legally precluded from acquiring such tax title by reason of having stood in the position of mortgagee junior to the said plaintiffs,” and held that it is so precluded. The appellant insurance company concedes that in many states this holding would be good law, but contends that by reason of G. S. 1894, § 1599, the second mortgagee may acquire a valid tax title, as against the first mortgagee. That section provides:

“Any person * * * may become the purchaser at such [tax] sale. If the owner purchase, the sale shall have the effect to pass to him (subject to redemption as herein provided) every right, title and interest of any and every person, company or corporation, free from any claim, lien or incumbrance, except such right, title, interest, lien or incumbrance as the owner so purchasing may be legally or equitably bound to protect against such sale, or the taxes for which such sale was made.”

The insurance company contends that it was neither legally nor equitably bound to protect plaintiffs’ mortgage against said tax sale or said taxes, and therefore has acquired a valid tax title, as against plaintiffs. We have held that, notwithstanding section 1599, one tenant in common cannot acquire a tax title, as against [491]*491his cotenant. Easton v. Scofield, 66 Minn. 425, 69 N. W. 326. It is there said at page 427:

“The decisions hold that his cotenant is one of the parties whom the purchaser is ‘equitably bound to protect.’ It is as much the duty of one tenant in common to pay the taxes as it is of another. Equity holds that one such tenant must protect his cotenant as much as he protects himself. The duty of all is the duty of each in that respect.”

So may it be said that, as between the first mortgagee and the second mortgagee, it is as much the duty of the one to pay the taxes as it is of the other. In equity it was the duty of the first mortgagee to pay the taxes for himself and the second mortgagee. It was the duty of the second mortgagee to pay the taxes for himself and the first mortgagee. The duty of both is the duty of each in this respect. The decisions that hold that the one mortgagee cannot acquire a tax title as against the other liken it to the case of tenants in common. See Connecticut v. Bulte, 45 Mich. 113, 7 N. W. 707; McLaughlin v. Green, 48 Miss. 175, 209; Garrettson v. Scofield, 44 Iowa, 35. In our opinion, the insurance company could not acquire the tax title in question, as against the plaintiffs.

2. The insurance company will be entitled to reimbursement for-the amount of the taxes paid, if its right as second mortgagee is barred by the expiration of redemption under the foreclosure of the first mortgage; and in the meantime it holds a lien for such amount, superior to the lien of the first mortgage. But the court ordered judgment barring all liens and claims of the trust company and insurance company, other than the right of redemption from the foreclosure sale. This is error.'

The validity of a tax title held by the second mortgagee may be litigated in a suit to foreclose the first mortgage. Wilson v. Jamison, 36 Minn. 59, 29 N. W. 887. This is merely holding that in such a suit either party may .determine whether the defendant’s lien or title is subject to the lien of the plaintiffs’ mortgage. But whether-the paramount lien of the second mortgagee for the taxes paid by him should be litigated, the amount thereof ascertained, or ordered paid, or the lien foreclosed, in such an action, we need not determine. Neither party has asked for any such relief, or introduced [492]*492evidence on which it could be granted. The land in question is but a small part of the tract sold for said taxes, and there is no evidence from which it can be determined what part of these taxes the land in question should bear. The plaintiffs or the purchaser at their foreclosure sale may never acquire title to this land. It may be redeemed by the owner or by the second mortgagee itself, and the latter would not, after any such redemption, have a claim on these plaintiffs for reimbursement. Then we are of the opinion that the claim for such reimbursement need not be enforced in this action, or until the time to redeem from such foreclosure sale expires.

The order for judgment must therefore be modified so as not to bar the right of the insurance company to such reimbursement.

3. Plaintiffs’ mortgage was made by one Simonds and others, the then owners of the land; and thereafter, in March, 1887, these mortgagors conveyed the land to the West Duluth Land Company, subject to the mortgage, the payment of which was in the conveyance assumed by the land company, and the deed was then recorded. Thereafter, on August 31, 1888, the land company conveyed a part of the tract to the Minnesota Car Company, with a covenant of warranty against all incumbrances; and on September 1, 1888, the car company made on this part the second mortgage, which was then recorded. Thereafter, at various times from 1892 to 1896, the plaintiffs entered into various agreements with the land company, whereby from time to time they extended for definite periods the time of payment of their mortgage indebtedness.

The first mortgage was made to one George W. Norton, and during his lifetime he knew that the land had been conveyed by the land company to the car company with a warranty against incumbrance. But he died in 1889, and the plaintiffs, his executors, never had any actual knowledge of any such conveyance or of said second mortgage at any of the times they granted said extensions. By mesne conveyances the land was in 1892 conveyed to the Duluth Manufacturing Company, and the latter then took possession of the same, and continued in possession at and during the time of said extensions, but these plaintiffs had no actual knowledge thereof at any of the times they granted said extensions. The second [493]*493mortgagees never consented to any of these extensions, but it does not appear whether or not the car company or its grantees, or any of them, did so consent.

On this state of facts, the trust company and the insurance company contend that, as to plaintiffs’ mortgage, the land company had become the principal debtor, and the part of the land still held by it had become the principal fund out of which that debt should be made; that the part of the land so covered by the second mortgage was only a surety for the payment of the first mortgage, and was released by the granting of the extensions of the time of payment of that mortgage.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Moore v. Crisp
1963 OK 97 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1963)
Koch v. Kiron State Bank
297 N.W. 450 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1941)
McKenzie v. Evans
29 P.2d 657 (Montana Supreme Court, 1934)
Riley v. Bank of Commerce of Roswell
23 P.2d 362 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1933)
Jefferson County Bank v. Erickson
247 N.W. 245 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1933)
Des Moines Savings Bank & Trust Co. v. Eisenmenger
235 N.W. 390 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1931)
Bursell v. Morgan
233 N.W. 12 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1930)
Wyoming Building & Loan Ass'n v. Mills Const. Co.
269 P. 45 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1928)
Baird v. Fischer
220 N.W. 892 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1928)
Farmers Mer. Nat. Bk. of Cannon Falls v. Doffing
213 N.W. 375 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1927)
Holland Piano Manufacturing Co. v. Smith
192 N.W. 355 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1923)
Midway Realty Co. v. City of St. Paul
145 N.W. 24 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1914)
State Bank v. Mutual Telephone Co.
143 N.W. 912 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1913)
Bandler v. Bradley
124 N.W. 644 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1910)
Hoyt v. Lightbody
101 N.W. 304 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1904)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
77 N.W. 298, 74 Minn. 484, 1898 Minn. LEXIS 963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norton-v-metropolitan-life-insurance-minn-1898.