Samples v. Robinson

275 P.2d 185, 58 N.M. 701
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 8, 1954
Docket5780
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 275 P.2d 185 (Samples v. Robinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Samples v. Robinson, 275 P.2d 185, 58 N.M. 701 (N.M. 1954).

Opinions

McGHEE, Chief Justice.

This appeal followed the foreclosure of a mortgage on a ranch and personal property, followed by the entry of a deficiency judgment from which an appeal was also taken.

The contract for the sale of the ranch, the bill of sale of the personal property, the note evidencing the deferred payments and a mortgage securing the indebtedness were executed simultanously and placed in escrow in a bank pending the approval of title and the making of a substantial down payment, following which the escrow holder delivered the deed and bill of sale to the purchasers and the note and mortgage to the sellers. The purchasers went into possession of the deeded lands.

The contract provided for annual payments of $2,000 each, beginning on April 15, 1953, with interest, but it did not provide all deferred payments might be declared due on default, or that the note or mortgage should provide for attorney’s fees, and neither did the mortgage; but the note contained both such provisions.

The contract did not mention two butane tanks on the place but they were included in the bill of sale. There was an indebtedness of some $143 owing on one of the tanks to a butane dealer who later repossessed it following the refusal of the buyers to pay such balance.

The contract provided for the transfer of an oral year to year lease on a 320 acre tract of partially fenced grazing land without permanent water, located six miles south of the ranch, which lease by its terms expired on the first of January following the transaction. The buyers did not get possession of the leased land, and the following year it was sold to Col. Lusk in whose pasture it was situated.

The first contention made by the buyers (appellants) is that as neither the contract nor mortgage contained a provision for accelerating the deferred payments and the recovery of attorney’s fees, in event the buyers should default, the trial court erred in decreeing foreclosure of all deferred payments and in awarding attorney’s fees, saying there was no merger of the contract and note. We do not believe merger is an issue in this case, but that we have for construction the contract, note and mortgage which were executed simultaneously as one entire transaction.

It seems to be the universal rule that where the provisions of a note concerning the debt or payment thereof vary from the terms of the mortgage securing it, the provisions of the former control.. Also, the note and mortgage are construed together as if they were parts of the same instrument, when they are made at the same time and in relation to the same subject as parts of one transaction constituting one contract. 1 Jones on Mortgages (8th ed. 1928) § 89.

The rule is stated in 9 Thompson on Real Property (Perm, ed., 1940) § 4921, as follows:

“Ordinarily, a note and trust deed or mortgage executed contemporaneously to secure the payment of an existing debt constitute one contract, and are construed together. A note and mortgage or note and trust deed may supplement each other, but, where they are at variance, the terms of the note govern, since it is the principal obligation and the mortgage or trust deed is merely an incident thereto. The note and mortgage may supplement each other in stating the debt secured; as where the mortgage states the rate of interest, which is omitted from the note, or where the note provides for interest at a certain rate per annum, and the mortgage provides for the same rate of interest payable annually; and, inasmuch as the mortgage provides for something respecting which the note was silent, the mortgage governs the contract in this respect. If the mortgage provides that upon any default in the payment of interest the whole mortgage debt shall become due, a note representing the mortgage debt, though it does not contain this provision, becomes due upon such default. A like provision in the mortgage note affects the mortgage from which it is omitted. When there is any uncertainty as to the amount secured by the mortgage, the notes re-: ferred to in it are competent evidence to explain the language as against the mortgagor, or one who purchased the equity of redemption with notice of the notes intended to be secured. Such evidence is not contradictory to the language of the mortgage, hut explanatory.”

The provisions of the note as to acceleration and attorney’s fees do not contradict the contract or mortgage, but supplement them, and the contentions of the buyers on this matter are not well taken.

The buyers next contend the deal was an entire one, and that because of the failure of title of the butane tank of the value of $250, and to transfer the lease on the dry, unfenced half-section six miles away, the sellers were not entitled to foreclose, and that they, the buyers, should have been allowed to rescind in accordance with their cross complaint.

The trial court found the lease was without value to the ranch, and as the owner of such land had sold it early in the following year tq another, as it was his right to do, the buyer had not suffered damage on account thereof. It also found the buyers knew the lease was without value to the ranch. It further found the buyers knew the butane tank in question did not belong to the sellers and that its inclusion in the bill of sale was due to inadvertence and mistake of the scrivener.

The buyers do not attack the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the findings as to the lease and butane tank, hut say their evidence that they would not have bought the ranch had the lease not been included is undisputed, and they were entitled to the possession of everything purchased or to rescission. The refusal of the sellers to allow credit for the butane tank was stated by the buyers as their reason for not making the payment due in April, 1953, so we will first get the tank out of the way.

In their argument as to the acceleration and attorney’s fees features of the case, the buyers wrapped the contract about them and contended the provisions of the note and mortgage could contain nothing not provided for in such contract, while as to the butane tank they do not mention the contract but stand squarely on the terms of the bill of sale and say that because of the failure of title to such tank the note and mortgage may not be enforced. Testimony showing the tank was included by mistake was admitted over the strong objection of the buyers, without a pleading on the part of the sellers alleging the mistake and asking that the bill of sale be reformed in such respect. The buyers say this was error, and we agree they are correct in this regard, but the buyers failed to include an alternate plea for a partial abatement of the purchase price or a credit on the note, so the butane tank stays in the case and we will determine whether its loss and the failure of the sellers to deliver possession of the leased half-section blow up this $35,-490.34 deal, that being the purchase price.

There must be a substantial failure of consideration to warrant rescission. The general rule is stated in 12 Am. Jur. (Contracts) § 440, as follows:

“It is not every breach of a contract or failure exactly to perform — certainly not every partial failure to perform — that entitles the other party to rescind.

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Samples v. Robinson
275 P.2d 185 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
275 P.2d 185, 58 N.M. 701, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/samples-v-robinson-nm-1954.