Porter v. Frazer

6 Misc. 553, 27 N.Y.S. 517, 57 N.Y. St. Rep. 516
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1894
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Misc. 553 (Porter v. Frazer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Porter v. Frazer, 6 Misc. 553, 27 N.Y.S. 517, 57 N.Y. St. Rep. 516 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1894).

Opinion

Ward, J.

Prior to July 3, 1893, the Cataract Bank was a state bank, located at Niagara Falls, N. Y. On that day the plaintiff was appointed receiver of this bank by a judgment of this court in an action brought by the People to dissolve the corporation, and he is still such. On the 29th of March, 1893, the defendant Washington A. Frazer made his promissory note payable at the bank for the sum of $8,000, due in three months, and the defendant Jennie R. Frazer indorsed this note, for the purpose of obtaining a loan from the bank of the-amount of the note to Washington A. Frazer.

At the time of the execution of this note Washington A. Frazer was the owner of a bond and mortgage executed by the defendant John J. Frazer to him, bearing dat# the 6th day of January, 1891. The bond was in the penal sum of $16,000, and was conditioned for the payment of $8,000 in five years from its date, together with annual interest, and contained a provision that if default was made in the payment of principal or interest, taxes, assessments or insurance for the space of thirty days the whole sum thereby secured would .become due, and the obligor was required to pay the taxes and to insure against loss or damage by fire, etc. The mortgage was in the usual form, given to secure the payments provided in the bond, and covering and describing two parcels of real estate in the city of Lockport, and was recorded in Niagara county. The bank, in addition to the indorsement of Jennie R. Frazer, required collateral security for the payment of this note of Washington A. Frazer, who thereupon, and for the purpose of giving such security, by an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, duly acknowledged, “ sold, assigned, transferred and conveyed ” to the bank the said bond and mortgage, describing them, and covenanted that there was unpaid and to become due on the same the sum of $8,000, with interest thereon from the 6th day of January, 1893, and concluded with this provision : “ This assignment is made as a eontinu[555]*555ing and collateral security for the payment at maturity of a certain note of $8,000, given by the party of the first part (Washington A. Frazer) to Jennie R. Frazer, and indorsed by the said Jennie R. Frazer to the Cataract Bank, which note is dated March 29, 1893, and payable three months after date at the Cataract Bank, Niagara Falls, New York, and for any and all renewals of said note.”

The date of this assignment and its acknowledgment was March 29, 1893. This assignment and the bond and mortgage were delivered to the bank, and are now held by the receiver.

John J. Frazer at this time was the owner and occupant of the premises described in the mortgage, and has continued to be, and there' is no difficulty in locating the property mortgaged nor in ascertaining its value.

When the' $8,000 note became due it was not paid but was protested for nonpayment, and has not been paid nor any part thereof. All of the defendants were served in this action and, therefore, had notice of the relief sought therein.

The complaint in this action sets forth the facts and demands judgment that the bond and mortgage be sold upon such terms as the court may deem just, and the proceeds of the sale applied in payment of the note after deducting the costs and expenses of the action and the sale, and that Washington A. Frazer be barred and foreclosed of all title or interest in the bond and mortgage, and that the plaintiff have judgment against Washington and Jennie for any deficiency that there may be after applying the proceeds of the sale as aforesaid.

The learned counsel for the defendants contends that the transaction of the assignment of this bond and mortgage as collateral security was a pledge. This position seems to be conceded by the counsel for the plaintiff. Whether it be a pledge or not is perhaps not very important to determine here, for the reason that in equity the substance of things is sought in administering relief, and names are unimportant. The question is whether upon the facts stated the plaintiff is entitled' to any relief, and if so what ?

[556]*556The defendants further contend that as there was no express authority given by the agreement to assign the bond and mortgage as collateral security for the bank to sell the «bond and mortgage, it cannot do so nor has the court the power to direct that this be done, but the plaintiff must await the maturity of the securities or their becoming due by reason of failure to perform a condition embraced therein, and then the plaintiff’s remedy is to collect on the securities themselves, and that is his only remedy; and the defendants cite in support of that contention Wheeler v. Newbould, 16 N. Y. 392; Miller v. Magee, 2 N. Y. Supp. 156; Haskins v. Kelly, 1 Robt. 160 ; Lary v. National Trust Co., 4 Wkly. Dig. 56.

The facts in the first case cited (Wheeler v. Newbould) were these: On ¡November 6, 1848, the defendant loaned to the plaintiffs $2,000, for the space of forty-four days. The plaintiffs as collateral security for the payment thereof, and four dollars a day interest, deposited with him promissory notes and drafts for the payment of money, given by various persons and becoming due in about six months, to the amount of $2,614.73. At the expiration of the forty-four days, the loan not being paid, the defendant gave the plaintiffs notice that unless they paid the loan he should sell the collaterals for the best price he could obtain, according to the usual custom and course of business in ¡New York city, and reimburse himself. The loan not being paid, the defendant, on the 28th of December, 1848, sold the notes and. drafts at private sale for the sum of $2,020. The action was to have this sale declared void and for the defendant to account for the value of the securities received. It will be observed that there was no notice given of the time or place of the sale; no sufficient opportunity given to redeem the pledge by the pledgor; the sale was not public, but the whole proceeding was most unjust and arbitrary and was substantially a conversion of the property by the pledgee. The plaintiffs succeeded in the trial court and also upon appeal to the General Term and the Court of Appeals, and the question before the court was simply [557]*557whether this sale could be sustained in equity; it is surprising that anyone should have contended that it could.

The Court of Appeals (16 N. Y. 396) say: “ The primary, and indeed the only purpose of the pledge, is to put it in the power of the pledgee to reimburse himself for the money advanced when it becomes due and remains unpaid. The contract carries with it an implication that the security shall be made effectual to discharge the obligation * * *. It has been supposed by some writers that to justify such a sale it was indispensable that it should be made under the decretal order of some court, upon the application of the creditor, but although the creditor was at liberty to malee such am, application, it does not appear that he might not act in ordinary cases without any such judicial sanction, after giving proper notice of the intended sale, etc. * * * It is not a fixed, inflexible condition annexed to.every pledge that the creditor may resort to a sale in all cases where there is a pledge, because the manner in which he is to reimburse himself may depend upon the terms of the contract or be inferred from the character and condition of the property pledged.”

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Related

Merchants' National Bank of Whitehall v. Hall
83 N.Y. 338 (New York Court of Appeals, 1881)
Wheeler v. . Newbould
16 N.Y. 392 (New York Court of Appeals, 1857)
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21 Tex. 70 (Texas Supreme Court, 1858)
W. B. King & Co. v. T. B. & Ins.
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Donohoe v. Gamble
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Miller v. Magee
2 N.Y.S. 156 (New York Supreme Court, 1888)
Merchants' National Bank v. Thompson
133 Mass. 482 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1882)

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Bluebook (online)
6 Misc. 553, 27 N.Y.S. 517, 57 N.Y. St. Rep. 516, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-frazer-nysupct-1894.