O'Connell v. St. Louis Joint Stock Land Bank

281 S.W. 385, 170 Ark. 778, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 241
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 22, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 281 S.W. 385 (O'Connell v. St. Louis Joint Stock Land Bank) 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
O'Connell v. St. Louis Joint Stock Land Bank, 281 S.W. 385, 170 Ark. 778, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 241 (Ark. 1926).

Opinion

McCulloch, C. J.

Appellee is a joint stock land bank, authorized to do business under the Federal statute approved July 17, 1916 (Barnes’ Federal Code, p. 2229), and it instituted this action to foreclose a mortgage on lands, and to impound the rents and profits during the pendency of the suit by the appointment of a receiver in order to subject the same to the payment of the mortgage debt.

On June 24,1922, Thomas ¡W. Lacy executed to appellee a mortgage on the lands in controversy to secure a debt in the sum of $30,000 for borrowed money, evidenced by semi-annual installment notes in the sum of $1,050 each, payable on the amortization plan on the first day of February and the first day of August of each year, the last payment to be made.in the-year 1955. The mortgage contained an acceleration clause to the effect that failure to pay any installment when due would render all of the installments due at the option of the holder. Lacy paid the semi-annual installments falling due and accruing up to and including August 1, 1923, and on October 23, 1923, Lacy conveyed the lands to appellant, M. J. O ’Connell, subject to the mortgage debt to appellee. The installment maturing February 1,1924, was not paid, and appellee elected to declare the whole • of the mortgage debt due according to the terms of the mortgage and instituted this action on March 5, 1924, to foreclose. Lacy and his wife, together with O’Connell, were .joined as defendants.

The mortgaged lands were situated in a levee district, and there was a default in the payment of the levee taxes for the year 1923 in the sum of $300.75.

Appellant O’Connell, soon after his purchase of the land from Lacy, took possession of the farm and made preparations to operate it by cultivating a portion of it himself, and renting the remainder, to tenants. He rented a portion of the land to J. F. DeLoney, who, prior to the commencement of the action, began farming operations by plowing some of the land. O’Connell also made similar preparations, but at the commencement of the action the chancellor, in vacation, appointed a receiver to take charge of the lands and impound the rents and profits during the pendency of the action. The appointment was made on application of appellee, and upon ex parte' showing that the lands were insufficient in value to pay the mortgage debt, and that the lands were deteriorating in value on account of lack of proper attention and ón account of the fact that a considerable portion of the levee which protected the lands from inundation had been broken, and some of the lands had caved into the river. The receiver immediately took.possession of the lands and operated the same during the year 1924, until the date of the foreclosure sale.

On January 15, 1924, O’Connell executed a mortgage to the First National Bank of Ashdown on all of his interest in crops to be raised during that year to secure a debt of $2,900 for borrowed money. On February 1, 1924, O’Connell executed a mortgage to the Commerce Trust Company of Kansas City to secure $10,000, and both of these concerns intervened in the action, claiming the crops under their respective mortgages. It appears from the pleadings and proof that the First National Bank of Ashdown furnished O’Connell $2,000 under the mortgage, and that the Commerce Trust Company of Kansas City furnished him $3,500. CFConnell did not, however, cultivate any crop on the farm, for the reason that possession was taken from him by the receiver.

On final hearing of the cause, there was a decree in favor of appellee for the amount of the debt, and a sale was ordered to pay the debt and the taxes, general and special, which had been paid by the receiver. The rents and profits of the land were collected by the receiver and accounted for to the court in his report, which showed that he had expended .in the payment of taxes, general and special, and in discharge of the salary of the receiver, and for mailing certain repairs, the total sum of $2,741.23. The court in its final decree directed the receiver to pay those items out of the rents and profits collected, and directed that the balance should be paid over to the First National Bank of Ashdown and the Commerce Trust Company of Kansas City on their respective mortgage debts, in the order named. Appeals have been prosecuted to this court by O’Connell, and 'by the First National Bank of Ashdown and the 'Commerce Trust Company of Kansas City.

The first contention is that appellee’s action to foreclose was premature. There is no controversy as to the validity of the mortgage or the terms thereof, nor is there any -dispute as to there being a default in the payment of the installment falling due February 1, 1924, but the contention of counsel for appellants is that the effect of the Federal statute, supra, under which appellee was doing business, allowed thirty days’ grace on the payment of installments and required thirty days’ notice to be given of default before there could be a foreclosure. Counsel rely upon section 24 of the Federal Farms Loans Act (Barnes’ Federal Code, § 9333), which reads as follows:

“If there shall be default under the terms of any indorsed first mortgage held by a Federal land bank under the provisions of this act, the national farm loan association or agent through which said mortgage was received by said Federal Land Bank shall be notified of gaid default. Said association or agent may thereupon be required, within thirty days after such notice, to make good said default, either by payment of the amount unpaid thereon in cash, or by the substitution of an equal amount of farm loan bonds issued by said land bank, with aU unmatured coupons attached. ”

Counsel are mistaken in assuming that the statute nuoted abov§ has any application to the operation of a joint stock land bank, for it applies exclusively to loans made by Federal Land Banks. It is true, as contended by counsel, that the operations of joint stock land banks are authorized and controlled by the Federal Farm Loans Act, the same as the operations of Federal Land Banks. There is a provision in the statute that joint stock land banks “shall be organized subject to the requirements and under the conditions set forth in section 4 of this act, so far as the same may be applicable.” It does not follow, however, that § 24, supra, has any application, for it is manifest that it has none. It will be noted that § 24 merely provides for notice by a Federal Land Bank to “a national farm loan association or agent through which said mortgage was received” of any default, and that this requirement applies only to “any indorsed first mortgage held by a Federal Land Bank.” The mortgage in question was not made to a Federal Land Bank, nor was it indorsed by any national farm loan association or agent, but it was a loan made directly by appellee tó the borrower. Under the Federal statute loans are made by Federal Land Banks through. local associations known as national farm loan associations, or, in a locality where no such association has been organized, loans may be made through incorporated banks, trust companies, mortgage companies or savings institutions which have been employed as agents by the Federal Land Bank. The mortgages executed to the Federal Land Bank are indorsed by the national farm loan association or agent through whom the same is made. Barnes’ Federal Code, § 9323.

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Bluebook (online)
281 S.W. 385, 170 Ark. 778, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oconnell-v-st-louis-joint-stock-land-bank-ark-1926.