Scott v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.

69 F. 17, 16 C.C.A. 358, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2356
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided June 4, 1895·No. No. 575·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

CALDWELL, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

Although some technical objections are taken to intervener’s petition, we think it sufficiently appears from an examination of the whole record that the intervener did set up that his judgment was a lien on certain real estate of the railroad company which was not embraced in any of the mortgages in suit, and that he desired the leave of the court to sue out execution on his judgment, and sell such lands, which were particularly described. As the intervener will be satisfied with this relief, we need not consider the question whether his judgment ought to be paid as a preferential debt. A special prayer for this relief was not necessary. The petition concluded with a general prayer “for all other further and proper relief,” and that was sufficient. It sufficiently appears from the record before us that the intervener’s judgment was and is a lien on the lands of the railroad company described in the petition, and that the lien of the mortgages which the complainant the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company seeks to foreclose does not extend to or embrace such lands. When a bill is filed to foreclose a mortgage, the court may, upon a proper showing, appoint a receiver to take into his possession and control the mortgaged property. But the jurisdiction possessed by a court of chancery to foreclose a mortgage and to appoint a receiver for the mortgaged property pending the foreclosure gives it no jurisdiction or power to seize or take into its custody or control, through a receiver or otherwise, property of the debtor which is not covered by the mortgage. Nor 'can the court in such a suit rightfully make any order that will prevent, hinder, or delay the other creditors of the mortgagor from subject[21] xng tbe property not included in the mortgage to the payment of their debts. A mortgagee lias the undoubted right to subject the mortgaged property to the payment of the mortgage debt, to the exclusion of all general creditors of the mortgagor and persons holding junior liens thereon; but as to all property of the debtor not included in the mortgage the mortgagee is in no better plight than if he had no mortgage. It is clear, therefore, that, so far as relates to, the receivership in the foreclosure suit, the intervener was entitled to an order discharging the land mentioned from the custody of the receivers, and granting him leave to sell the same on execution to satisfy his judgment.

The next inquiry is, was the intervener deprived of his right to collect his judgment by due course of law by reason of the bill filed on the 15th day of August, 1893, and the orders made in that suit? That was not a bill to foreclose a mortgage or enforce any other lien on the property of the company. Though the railroad company was made a defendant to the bill, it is obvious that it was not an adversary proceeding, and that it is to be viewed precisely as if the company itself had filed the bill. The bill did not contemplate the sale of the road or the dissolution of the corporation. Briefly, it alleged the company owed more debts than it was then ready to pay, and that, unless the courts shielded and preserved its proj>erty by taking it into its judicial custody, large sums of money would be lost to its creditors and stockholders, and the public interests injuriously affected; but that, if the court would take the road and its property into its judicial custody, and preserve and manage "the same as a unit,” the same would "be more than sufficient to pay and discharge all the debts and obligations to its creditors, and preserve to its stockholders said railway system freed from debt.” The bill, it is •evident, contemplated the continuance of the- receivership until the court received money enough from the sales of the lands of the company, and fr.om the earnings of the road, to pay all the debts of the company, and, when this had been accomplished, it was to hand the property over to the stockholders fx*eed from debt. It placed the property of the company beyond the reach of its creditors, and put it under the management of the chancellor until the earnings and income therefrom should be sufficient to pay the debts of the company. The bill gave no intimation of the length of time that would be required to enable the chancellor to accomplish this task. The management of the road by its president and board of directors was not assailed; on the contrary, the company was eager to have its president appointed a receiver, and it was done.

It is obvious that if an individual or private business corporation had conveyed its property to another for the same purposes and upon the same trusts that the court was asked to take this property, and did take it, the law would have stamped the conveyance as one made to hinder and delay creditors, and fraudulent and void for that reason. In the case of Glenn v. Biggett, 47 Fed. 472, 474, Judge Thayer said:

“Ordinarily, and in the absence of a statute expressly authorizing such a proceeding, courts of equity have no greater control over the affairs of a private [22] corporation when it becomes insolvent than they have over the affairs of an individual. They are not courts of bankruptcy.”

And see, to the same effect, Silver Mines v. Brown, 58 Fed. 644, 7 C. C. A. 412,19 U. S. App. 203; Walters v. Trust Co., 50 Fed. 316.

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Scott v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 69 F. 17, 16 C.C.A. 358, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2356 (8th Cir. 1895).

69 F. 17 (Scott v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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