Peoples Sav. Bank v. Southern Cotton Oil Co.

17 So. 2d 177, 245 Ala. 398, 1944 Ala. LEXIS 293
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 13, 1944
Docket5 Div. 384.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 17 So. 2d 177 (Peoples Sav. Bank v. Southern Cotton Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peoples Sav. Bank v. Southern Cotton Oil Co., 17 So. 2d 177, 245 Ala. 398, 1944 Ala. LEXIS 293 (Ala. 1944).

Opinion

*400 THOMAS, Justice.

The appeal challenges the circuit court’s decree in overruling demurrer to a cross bill and the appointment of the receiver of property which was subject to first and second mortgages.

The appeal was by the Peoples Savings Bank, a mortgagee, and H. F. & Bell Thompson, mortgagors. The record in this court is to the effect that the Thompsons have withdrawn their appeal and assignment of error. The brief in their behalf is filed without, prejudice to appellant bank.

The original bill was by the Peoples Savings Bank. to enjoin the foreclosure of a mortgage given by Thompson et als., to the appellees in 1934 when the latter sold mortgaged property to Thompson and others. The details of the several transactions vesting the title to the mortgaged property in respondent Thompson and wife, who were named respondents with their original grantee, the only appellee here, are set out in the record. The several conveyances are exhibited to and support the pleading. Grimsley v. First Ave. Coal & Lumber Co., 217 Ala. 159, 115 So. 90.

In selling the property to Thompson and associates for $7,201.68, payable in installments, it was the intention of the parties-that a ginning and cotton seed business would be conducted by Thompson, and that he would put in incidents thereto and sell cotton seed meal and hulls and fertilizer from grantee, which was thought to be of mutual advantage to mortgagor and mortgagee. It is provided in the mortgage, after describing the mortgage debt and partial payments thereof to be made that, Thompson “may incur other indebtedness to” and that the mortgage was to stand as security for “the prompt payment of each of said notes when due, as well and also in all other additional indebtedness after they are authorized by us to be secured by note,, open account or otherwise, and all extensions and/or renewals thereof.” Such a. conveyance has been sustained in the recent decision of Forlines v. Paulk et al., 243 Ala. 516, 10 -So.2d 864.

In the summer of 1942 Thompson still' owed the note due December 1, 1936, for $2,675 and other notes, open accounts and interest thereon, amounting to $10,000. The company initiated foreclosure proceedings in July 1942 by advertising the mortgaged property as provided in the terms of the mortgage.

In the meantime in 1937 Thompson had executed a mortgage for $5,000 in favor of complainant bank of date of October 14th and payable six months later on April 14,. 1938, securing the same by properties described in appellee’s mortgage made, as we have indicated, about three years earlier. On March 30, 1939, Thompson gave the bank another mortgage on the same property for $1,000 due December 1, 1939. The respective mortgages were promptly recorded as required by law. When appelleecompany began its proposed foreclosure-in July 1942, the appellant bank filed its bill praying, among other things, that appellee company be enjoined from foreclosure pendente lite. Such order was made-on October 5, 1942. In response to this, injunctive order, the, foreclosure by appellee company was suspended. Such order was still in force at the time of the trial of this case. Thus the injunction left Thompson in possession of the mortgaged property (gin and warehouse), and he was-free to operate the same without hindrance by appellee company, and appellee was. *401 without power to enforce its claim under the mortgage.

The record shows that under this injunctive decree Thompson operated the property during ginning season and up to the fall of 1942, the bank collecting the substantial amount of $1778 on its debt. The original bill purports to be for the purpose of redeeming under the bank’s second mortgage from the first mortgage to appellee company.

The record shows that on October 23, 1942, the appellee company filed its answer to the original bill and incorporated therein and as a part thereof a cross bill asking for affirmative relief in the way of marshalling assets, for foreclosure, and for a judgment over against Thompson and for general relief. The bank and Thompson filed answer, respectively, to the cross bill. The record also shows that the case was at issue as to all parties to the pleading on April 23, 1943.

After hearing the testimony and reading the affidavits, the court granted the application for appointment of a receiver and for impounding the funds derived from the operation of the ginning plant and warehouse and appointed Griffin Tatum as receiver and fixed his bond. Said.receiver was duly qualified as an official of the court in connection with such proceeding. From the above order the bank alone appealed.

The cross bill as amended was not subject to demurrer. The defendant-complainant cannot obtain all relief under answer to which it is entitled under the cross bill. Patton v. Birmingham Trust & Savings Co., 235 Ala. 586, 180 So. 264; Long v. Monroe County Bank, 226 Ala. 26, 145 So. 471; Thompson v. Leyden, 222 Ala. 81, 130 So. 780; Manning v. Manning, 203 Ala. 186, 82 So. 436. See also Smith v. Colpack, 235 Ala. 513, 179 So. 520, where the statute is considered that broadened the scope of a cross bill as to notice. General Acts 1936-37, Ex.Sess. p. 208. Under the answer the Southern Cotton Oil Company, respondent in the original bill, could not have secured the appointment of receiver or impounded the funds earned in operation of the plant and warehouse; could not marshal assets as to the other property in the bank’s mortgage, and could not have a moneyed judgment over against Thompson.

On this point the Patton case, supra, is similar. There is a bill for redemption, a third party was a party, and relief against that third party was sought. The court held that the cross bill was necessary. Plere the cross bill asks for relief against the third party, Thompson. Surely this is. an instance where the company cannot have relief against Thompson without a cross bill asking for it. Was the amended cross, bill sufficient?

In Parker v. Williams, 231 Ala. 569, 165 So. 848, 849, a mortgagor filed a bill to cancel a mortgage and in the alternative to be permitted to redeem. The respondent filed a cross bill asking for receiver charging that mortgagor was insolvent, in possession of the property, collecting the rents and the property was insufficient to pay the debt secured thereby. The decree appointed a receiver and was affirmed on appeal. After restating the rule that receivers should be appointed with great caution, Mr. Justice Knight wrote for the court as follows:

“But, while this is true, the court will not refuse to intervene and appoint a receiver when it is made to satisfactorily appear that the mortgagor is in possession, collecting the rents, is insolvent, and permits portions of the mortgaged property to be sold for taxes, and fails or refuses to keep buildings on the property insured, as by the terms of his mortgage he agreed to do. In other words, the court will not refuse the appointment of a receiver, when, by so doing, irreparable loss may result to the mortgagee. * *

“The appointment of a receiver is a matter addressed to the sound judicial discretion, revisable by the appellate court, and, of course, must be exercised with care. Albritton et al. v. Lott-Blackshear Commission Co., supra [167 Ala. 541, 52 So. 653]; Miller v. Lehman, Durr & Co., 87 Ala. 517, 519, 6 So. 361; Warren et al. v. Pitts et al., 114 Ala. 65, 21 So.

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Bluebook (online)
17 So. 2d 177, 245 Ala. 398, 1944 Ala. LEXIS 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peoples-sav-bank-v-southern-cotton-oil-co-ala-1944.