Realty Co. v. Borough of Port Vue

26 Pa. D. & C. 677, 1936 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 350
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County
DecidedApril 15, 1936
Docketno. 799
StatusPublished

This text of 26 Pa. D. & C. 677 (Realty Co. v. Borough of Port Vue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Realty Co. v. Borough of Port Vue, 26 Pa. D. & C. 677, 1936 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 350 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1936).

Opinion

McNaugher, J.,

The final decree in this case was affirmed on appeal on April 22, 1935 (318 Pa. 374). On December 19, 1935, plaintiff presented a petition to foreclose its lien and an order was thereupon entered granting a rule upon defendant, the Borough of Port Vue, to show cause why foreclosure should not be granted. Defendant filed an answer admitting all of plaintiff’s averments of fact but alleging that to order foreclosure and sale to satisfy the entire debt, as prayed for, would be in effect to amend and enlarge a decree after it had become a final judgment, and that we are without authority in the premises. The matter now comes before us for disposition, following oral argument and the submission of briefs.

At the outset it must be observed that by its answer defendant, without pleading any extenuating circumstances, admits that it has failed to comply with any part of the requirements of the decree, which the Supreme Court held to be generously moderate in its terms. Plaintiff has not been paid anything on account of interest and nothing whatever has been done to create a sinking fund.

[679]*679Defendant relies upon a proposition which, when first stated, sounds plausible though utterly inequitable, and that is that the principal debt is not due, since there is no acceleration clause in the bonds; a sale could not, therefore, be ordered for the recovery of more than the overdue interest; and in case of sale plaintiff would lose the principal of its bonds because its lien would be divested. If all of this were so, we could not enforce the decree without gross injustice to plaintiff; there would then be a right without a remedy; and a deliberately defaulting debtor would be permitted to take advantage of its own wrong.

But we do not find ourselves in that ineffectual position. The borough covenanted in its bonds that it had already established and that it would maintain a sinking fund for the redemption of the bonds at maturity. In the bonds it is certified:

“That provision has been made out of the revenues of the waterworks of the said borough to pay the interest on the said bonds and the principal thereof as required by the constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

Payments made into a sinking fund are instalments of principal. The admission that nothing has been paid into the sinking fund is an admission that the borough has defaulted in payment of instalments of principal, not to plaintiff, it is true, but to a fund of which the borough was the trustee: Brooke et al. v. City of Philadelphia et al., 162 Pa. 123; Equitable Trust Co. of N. Y. v. Green Star Steamship Corp. et al., 291 Fed. 650.

In the third paragraph of the decree it was ordered:

“That the borough defendant shall on or before October 1, 1935, make payment to plaintiff of the amount specified in paragraph one with interest, and any intervening interest coupons together with interest thereon, and establish a sinking fund for the sole purpose of amortization of the debt represented by the bonds held by plaintiff, and, on or before December 31, 1937, pay there-[680]*680into the whole amount which will then be required under the terms of the bonds.”

It was required that defendant establish a sinking fund on or before October 1,1935, and hence there is default as to this in addition to the default as to payments of interest.

The decree provides in paragraph 4:

“That if it shall appear to the court that the borough has failed to comply with the provisions of paragraph three hereof, a foreclosure of plaintiff’s lien upon the borough’s interest in the water works and system to satisfy defaults will be ordered.”
“Plaintiff’s lien” is referred to in the chancellor’s adjudication in the third conclusion of law as follows:
“The water bonds 1922 were at the time of issue, January 1,1923, and noweare, a first lien against defendant’s water plant and its property, pipes, lines, and other appliances and appurtenances, franchises for the operation thereof, and its gross revenues.”

The lien covers the entire waterworks system which, in the nature of things, cannot be divided so that a part could be sold in satisfaction of existing defaults. A foreclosure must necessarily involve a sale of the entire property.

Although default in payment of interest or in establishing a sinking fund does not, under the bond contract, operate to mature the principal debt, there being no acceleration clause, a sale of the premises on account of such defaults would effect a virtual foreclosure on the principal debt, and would divest its lien: West Branch Bank v. Chester, 11 Pa. 282.

Equity requires that the creditor, in order to protect itself, be permitted, at a sale divesting its lien, to bid in the property if necessary to the full extent of its claim, excluding interest beyond the date of sale, regardless of the fact that payment of the whole amount may not yet be due and that it, as lienholder, if the property be sold to another, participate in the fund created by the sale up to the total of principal of the bonds and the interest due.

[681]*681There is authority for the relief indicated.

Dundas v. Crain, District Court Philadelphia, February 7, 1821, MS, according to the notation in 6 Vale’s Pennsylvania Digest 8631, holds that “A mortgage is payable out of the proceeds of a sheriff’s sale, though not due according to its terms.”

In 3 Jones on Mortgages (8th ed.), sec. 2491, we find this:

“When property is sold under a mortgage or deed of trust to satisfy one instalment of the debt before the others have matured, and there is no provision that the whole debt shall be due and payable upon a default upon any part of it, the trustee holds any surplus there may be, after satisfying the expenses and the part of the debt then due, subject to the same lien as the property was. The mortgagor has no claim to it.”

And in the latter part of Sec. 2083:

“Generally, a sale of the whole estate, when there is no order for a sale in parcels for an instalment due before the principal amount, exhausts the remedy of the creditor, and passes a clear title to the purchaser. In such a case the creditor may retain from the proceeds of the sale enough to satisfy unpaid installments not yet due.”

Howell v. Western R. R. Co., 94 U. S. 463, involved a situation very analogous to the present. At page 466 the court said:

“There can, in fact, be but one decree of foreclosure of the same mortgage on the same property, and it is a necessity of that foreclosure, under the principles of the Court of Chancery, that all the sums secured by that mortgage must be protected according to their priority of lien.
“We are of opinion, then, that there is due from the railroad company to plaintiff the amount of his overdue and unpaid coupons.
“For this sum, whatever it may be, he has a right to a decree nisi, according to the chancery practice, — a decree which will ascertain the sum so due, and give the com[682]

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

Related

Howell v. Western Railroad Company
94 U.S. 463 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Realty Co. v. Port Vue Borough
178 A. 466 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1935)
West Branch Bank v. Chester
51 Am. Dec. 547 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1849)
Brooke v. City of Philadelphia
24 L.R.A. 781 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1894)
Fowler v. Johnson
3 N.W. 986 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1880)
Equitable Trust Co. v. Green Star S. S. Corp.
291 F. 650 (S.D. New York, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 Pa. D. & C. 677, 1936 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/realty-co-v-borough-of-port-vue-pactcomplallegh-1936.