Remington Paper Co. v. . O'Dougherty

81 N.Y. 474, 1880 N.Y. LEXIS 264
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 21, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 81 N.Y. 474 (Remington Paper Co. v. . O'Dougherty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Remington Paper Co. v. . O'Dougherty, 81 N.Y. 474, 1880 N.Y. LEXIS 264 (N.Y. 1880).

Opinion

Andrews, J.

The title of the plaintiff, as purchaser of the real estate of Patrick O’Dongherty, under its judgment and execution, had not, at the time of the commencement of this action, been perfected by a conveyance from the sheriff. But more than a year had elapsed from the time of sale. The period for redemption by the judgment debtor had expired, and the only contingency which could defeat the right of the purchaser to a deed, at the expiration of fifteen months, was a redemption by other judgment creditors, or by a mortgagee whose mortgage was a lien on the premises. In that case, the redeeming creditor, or mortgagee, would acquire the rights of the plaintiff, and would be entitled to a deed from the sheriff, if no further redemption was made.. (2 Rev. Stat. 371, § 51.) The legal title of the judgment debtor to lands sold on execution is not divested until the sheriff’s deed is executed. But after the expiration of a year from the sale, without redemption, the purchaser acquires an equitable title to the land, subject only to the right of possession in the judgment debtor, until the expiration of fifteen mouths from the sale, and to the right of redemption by other creditors. The judgment debtor’s rights in the land are certain to be completely divested by the lapse of the fifteen months, and by the sheriff’s deed, which after that time, the purchaser, or one who has acquired his rights, has the absolute right to demand and receive. (Wright v. Douglass, 2 N. Y. 373; Chautauque Co. Bk. v. Risley, 19 N. Y. 379.) This inchoate title of a purchaser of lands on execution after the expiration of the time for redemption by the judgment-debtor is, we think, *482 such an interest and title as entitles the purchaser to maintain an action for the cancellation of instruments or incumbrances, which within the doctrine of courts of equity are clouds upon title. In this case the plaintiff received the sheriff’s deed soon after the commencement of the action, and his prior equitable title was merged in the legal title acquired on the execution of the conveyance.

The complaint also makes out a case for the interference of the court in respect of the character of the conveyances and incumbrances which it seeks to set aside. • It is alleged that the deed of December 25, 1861, which purports to be a conveyance from John O’Dougherty, the father of Patrick, the judgment debtor, to Anna O’Dougherty, the wife of Patrick, of parcels 11 and 12, sold on the plaintiff’s execution is a forgery; that the grantor named therein never executed or acknowledged the deed, and that the certificate of acknowledgment indorsed thereon is false. The complaint also charges that certain mortgages executed by Patrick, and certain judgments recovered against him, which are apparent liens on the premises prior to the judgment of the plaintiff, under which it purchased, have been paid by Patrick, but are kept on foot undischarged of record, and have been assigned to the defendant Anna for the purpose of defrauding Patrick’s creditors.

It has been held that forgery is of itself a sufficient ground for invoking the jurisdiction of a court of equity to compel the surrender and cancellation of the forged instrument. (Peake v. Highfield, 1 Russ. Ch. 559, and cases cited; see, also, Bushnell v. Harford, 4 Johns. Ch. 301.) It is not necessary to consider whetlier-under the recent authorities an action can be maintained to set aside a conveyance as a cloud upon title, on the allegation of forgery simply. The general rule as now understood is that when a party making title or claiming under an instrument or conveyance invalid for any reason wrould be compelled in establishing his right to prove the genuineness or validity of such instrument or conveyance in the first instance by direct proof, no case arises for the interposition of equity. *483 (Town of Venice v. Woodruff 62 N. Y. 462, and cases cited.) But when the law raises a presumption without direct proof, of the validity of a conveyance, and its invalidity can only be made to appear by extrinsic evidence, a case is presented for the exercise of the jurisdiction of a court of equity, to compel the surrender and cancellation of the conveyance as a cloud upon title. (Scott v. Onderdonk, 14 N. Y. 9; Marsh v. City of Brooklyn, 59 id. 280, and cases cited.) The jurisdiction of the court to set aside the forged deed of December 25, 1861, as a cloud upon the plaintiff’s title, is clear within the strictest rule on the subject. The statute makes a deed duly acknowledged or proved, and certified by any officer authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds, evidence, without further proof of execution. (1 Kev. Stat. 759, § 16.) The production of the deed of December 25, 1861, with the certificate of acknowledgment indorsed thereon, would, under the statute, be sufficient to entitle it to be read in evidence without further proof of the signature of the grantor. The certificate was in due form. It is in the handwriting of Patrick O’Dougherty, who was, at the time it purports to have been made, a justice of the peace, duly authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds, and he was not disqualified to take the acknowledgment by reason of his relationship to the parties. (Lynch v. Livingston, 6 N. Y. 422.) The fact of forgery was an extrinsic fact depending upon paroi evidence, and the grantee in the deed, in making title thereunder, would not be bound to prove the genuineness of the signature of the grantor, but could repose on the statutory presumption arising from the certificate of acknowledgment, and this circumstance, independently of any other consideration, gives the court jurisdiction.

In respect to paid judgments and mortgages it is well settled that the court may grant relief by compelling their satisfaction of record when they are continued as apparent liens, for inequitable purposes. (1 Story’s Eq., § 703; Radcliff v. Rowley, 2 Barb. Ch. 23; Shaw v. Dwight, 27 N. Y. 244.)

The question of the genuineness of the deed of December 25, 1861, was strongly contested on the trial. The issue of *484 forgery was distinctly made by the pleadings. The grantor named in the deed died intestate in 1862, leaving his son Patrick his only heir-at-law. The grantee was the second wife of Patrick by a marriage which took place in October, 1861, a few weeks prior to the date of the deed. The deed purported to convey to Anna, in fee, a valuable real estate owned by John, comprising almost his entire property. Patrick had several children by his first wife, living at the time of his alleged conveyance. In April, 1866, Patrick entered into a written agreement for the sale of the lands embraced in this deed, and other lands then owned by him, to the plaintiff, for $20,000, the sale to be completed by a conveyance, and the payment of the purchase-price in May following. The contract made no reference to any interest of Anna in any part of the lands, and it provided that Patrick should convey by warranty deed, free and clear from all incumbrances.

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Bluebook (online)
81 N.Y. 474, 1880 N.Y. LEXIS 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/remington-paper-co-v-odougherty-ny-1880.