Parsons v. Thornburg

17 W. Va. 356, 1880 W. Va. LEXIS 13
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 18, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 17 W. Va. 356 (Parsons v. Thornburg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parsons v. Thornburg, 17 W. Va. 356, 1880 W. Va. LEXIS 13 (W. Va. 1880).

Opinion

Haymond, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the Court:

This casein some of its features is not unlike the case of Arbuckle v. McClanahan et al., 6 W. Va. 101. In that case the plaintiff .in his bill alleged, that he had made-payments upon and was entitled to reductions or offsets against the deed of trust debt, but he neither specified the payments of offsets in his bill nor filed with his bill as an exhibit and specification a list of such payments or offsets; and he failed to file any evidence in the cause proving or tending to prove his claim of payments or offsets. But the defendant did in his answer admit certain payments which were endorsed on the bond given for the debt and filed with his answer a copy of the bond with the credits endorsed. In that case it did not appear, that there was in fact any dispute as to the amount the debtor was entitled to as payments or offsets, before the land was advertised for sale by the trustee, or the bill was filed, or that the plaintiff had ever claimed to the trustee or creditor, that he claimed or was entitled [388]*388any credits not admitted and endorsed on the said bond. Under these circumstances the court dissolved tbe injunction and the decree of dissolution was affirmed by this Court.

In the case at bar the plaintiff: failed to specify or state in his bill the’ payments, offsets or deductions, to which be claims in his bill he is entitled, with the exception of the value of the strip of about two acres of land, for which he claims he is entitled to a credit or deduction of some $500.00. It is true, the plaintiff states the aggregate amount, for whi.ch he claims a credit on the deed of trust debt, but it is manifest that this aggregate amount so claimed is composed of various items, but what they are is not stated with the exception aforesaid.

The defendant, James L. Thornburg, in his answer denies, that the plaintiff is entitled to a credit on the debt for $1,797.50, the amount claimed in the bill; but he admits, that he has paid in all on the debt $1,515.55, of which sum $1,160.00 was paid for interest up to the 1st day of September, 1873, which is credited on the note given for the debt in the handwriting of the plaintiff, Avhich is composed of a large number of items there aggregated and amounted to the sum of $1,160.00; and that since the date of said credit the plaintiff has paid him as follows, to wit: On the 22d day of September, 1874, in cash $200.00; nails, sixty;-five pounds; gray lime, twenty barrels; white lime, six barrels.; plaster Paris, one barrel, amounting in all to $40.55; that these items were gotten in the month' of September, about the time of the cash-payment, but he cannot state the exact date, and therefore he is willing to allow them all as of the same date of the cash-payment, also check of plaintiff or of some one else endorsed by him for $50.00, received October 17, 1874, $50.00 either in money or check, does not remember which, and $15.00 in money or check some time in the fall of 1874, he cannot state exactly when— making in all $355.55. And he avers this is all that has in any way been paid on said note now due, which does [389]*389not pay the interest by several hundred dollars ; but he does not say that the last named items have been credited on the note, and he has failed to file the note or a copy it with his answer either with or without credits endorsed. The plaintiff failed to file any evidence proving or tending to prove that he was entitled to any credits or offsets against said defendant for any cause ; and the only evidence of his right to any credits are the admissions contained in the answer of said James L. Thorn-burg.

This case in some of its aspects, though not all, is like the case of Walker v. Summers et al., 9 W. Va. 533. In the last named case the plaintiff alleged, that he had sold nineteen of the lots, but failed to state to whom the sales were made, whether he had received payment in whole or part, and in fact made no allegations in reference thereto, except he did state the average price at which he sold. He failed also to make the alleged purchasers parties to the bill, and to allege that the trustee was about to or would sell these lots, and in fact it was fairly inferrible from the allegations of the bill, that the plaintiff did not expect or anticipate a sale of these lots. The court said : “Upon a proper case made by proper parties by the pleadings and evidence., the court might properly direct, that the nineteen lots aforesaid should not be sold under said deed of trust, until the residue of the land was first sold.” 9 W. Va. 547.

In the last named case the court dissolved the injunction granted in the cause, and authorized the trustee by a sale of the trust-property, or so much thereof as should be necessary, to pay the costs of sale and the sum of $6,879.65, the amount due thereon, on the 8th day of July, 1874; and the court then proceeded to decree further as stated in the decree. See pages 542, 543.. There was no consent to this decree by the cestui que trust, or the trustee. But the plaintiff in the ease appealed.

In the case at bar, if the decree had stopped with a dissolution of the injunction simply, then, I think from [390]*390the pleadings'and circumstances appearing in this case, the decree would have been erroneous. The case, though like the two cases, to which I have referred, in some respects, is not like either of them in other material aspects, which is quite manifest upon examination. But the decree proceeds further than to dissolve the injunction. Immediately after the section of the decree dissolving the injunction and in the immediately succeeding part of the decree it appears substantially, that by the consent of the plaintiff and the defendants the court retained the case on its docket, in order that the real es-taté in question in the deed of trust mentioned should be sold under the direction and oontrol of the court, and the court then proceeds to ascertain in a general way the extent of the plaintiff’s lien for his debt secured by the deed of trust and then decrees (without ascertaining the amount due upon the debt, or giving a day for payment) that the trustee “ do so proceed to sell so much of the said real estate, as may be necessary to pay the said James L. Thornburg the amount of principal and interest due him upon said note and deed of trust at the ,date of said sale, together with the costs and expenses attending the said sale; and by the request of the plaintiff and of the defendants, other than the said James L. and Thomas Thornburg, and with the assent of the said James L. Thornburg, it was further adjudged, ordered and decreed, that the said trustee do sell the real estate as follows : 1st. All that portion thereof which has not heretofore been sold by the said plaintiff; and the said trustee before making such sale shall divide said land into lots of reasonable size, and shall sell the same in parcels, or as a whole, whichever will produce the great-amount of money. 2d. He shall, in case the portion of said real estate before mentioned does not produce a sum sufficient to pay the said debt, interest and expenses, then proceed and sell each lot and parcel of said real estate so sold by the plaintiff as aforesaid, commencing with that lot or parcel thereof last sold and con[391]

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Bluebook (online)
17 W. Va. 356, 1880 W. Va. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parsons-v-thornburg-wva-1880.