Smith v. Kerr

157 A. 314, 130 Me. 433, 1931 Me. LEXIS 110
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedNovember 18, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 157 A. 314 (Smith v. Kerr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Kerr, 157 A. 314, 130 Me. 433, 1931 Me. LEXIS 110 (Me. 1931).

Opinion

Farrington, J.

On Appeal. Bill in equity dated January 15, 1931, filed January 17, 1931, to redeem certain real estate on which the defendant had begun foreclosure proceedings and of whom an accounting had been demanded, because of alleged unreasonable refusal and neglect to render such account.

On September 26, 1926, the plaintiff, to secure the payment of the sum of three thousand dollars ($3,000.00), mortgaged to one Harry D. Currier certain real estate owned by her in Portland, Maine, consisting of a three family house and a three stall garage at No. 14 Fessenden Street, and a two and a half story, two family house, with garage, on Canton Street.

On May 22, 1929, Currier assigned the mortgage to the defendant and endorsed the note without recourse.

The note itself was as follows: “$3000.00. Portland, Maine, Sept. 18, 1926. One year after date I promise to pay to the order of Harry D. Currier Three Thousand and 00/100 Dollars at any bank in Portland, Maine. Value received with interest at 10%. Payable quarterly.”

The defeasance clause of the mortgage, under the same date as the note, was “Provided nevertheless, that if the said granto'r or her heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, shall pay unto the said grantee or his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, the sum of three thousand dollars ($3000.00) in one year from this date, with interest on the amount unpaid and on overdue interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum, during said term, and for such further time as said principal sum or any part thereof shall remain unpaid payable quarter-annually,” and then, after making certain [435]*435provisions including payment of taxes and insurance, it concluded as follows: “then this deed, as also a promissory note of even date herewith signed by the said grantor whereby promise to pay to the said grantee or order the said sum and interest at the time aforesaid, shall be void.”

The plaintiff failed to pay the mortgage when it became due but endorsements on the note showed payment of all interest due up to June 20, 1928.

On July 18, 1930, the defendant, as assignee of the mortgage, acting under the provisions of the statute, entered in the presence of two witnesses and took possession of the premises on Fessenden Street and Canton Street, making separate entry as to each.

It was admitted by the plaintiff that the certificate of foreclosure which was duly and seasonably recorded conformed as to “form and substance” with the statutory requirements.

No question is raised as to the effectiveness of the foreclosure proceedings as far as the Canton Street property is concerned but it is contended that the facts as to Fessenden Street presented a different situation. This house was arranged for three tenements, one on the ground floor, occupied by a tenant at the time of entry, one on the middle floor unoccupied at the time, and one on the upper floor occupied by the plaintiff, who was engaged in canvassing and who was not there at the time but who lived there during the short intervals of time when in Portland and who was still occupying it in the same way at the time of the hearing on the Bill before us. The evidence showed that plaintiff’s tenement was locked and was not itself entered by the defendant when he took possession under the statutory method of foreclosure.

The presiding Justice found “that the possession of the mortgaged premises was taken peaceably and openly in accordance with the terms of the Statute, on July 18, 1930,” and that “the defendant did unreasonably refuse and neglect to render a true account in writing of the balance due on said mortgage” and sustained the bill with costs, also finding that the balance due on the mortgage was $4,109.74, represented by the face of the note, plus the sum of certain expenditures made by the defendant, duly itemized in the findings, and of interest reckoned on the note at the rate of ten per [436]*436cent from June 20, 1928, to January 17, 1931, and interest on overdue interest at the same rate from September 20, 1928, to January 17, 1931, less $551.95, the amount found as received for rentals.

The case is before us on appeal from the decree allowing the plaintiff to redeem on payment to the defendant of the said sum of $4,109.74 within sixty days from the date of the decree, less her taxable costs, and in default of payment the bill to be dismissed.

The plaintiff bases her claim under this appeal on six points of contention, the first and second of which raise questions particularly as to the foreclosure of the Fessenden Street property.

On July 18, 1930, when, for the purpose of foreclosure, the defendant made his entry, as he also did on the Canton Street parcel, the plaintiff was not in her tenement on the upper floor, nor was she anywhere within the building or on the premises as far as the record disclosed, and her door was locked. No actual entry was made into her rooms. The defendant with his two witnesses entered all three floors, having been admitted by someone on the first floor,. and then went to the garage and then onto the land and in all these places repeated the statement that he was taking possession for the purpose of foreclosing the mortgage of which he was the owner and the terms of which had been broken.

The record discloses no evidence that anyone opposed the entry and we find that such entry was unopposed, and it must be regarded, despite the claim of the plaintiff, as having been made peaceably and openly as found by the presiding Justice and that finding should not be disturbed.

The evidence in the case shows that the plaintiff retained her tenement, occupying it when she was in Portland, and that she never paid any rent to the defendant, although he collected rent from the other occupants, made necessary repairs and exercised general control over the premises.

The plaintiff testified that she had never consented to defendant’s taking of possession, and her consent was not necessary under the method of foreclosure used. She admitted that defendant made some suggestion to her about remaining in her rent, or, if she were away, of letting it furnished and having the proceeds applied on [437]*437the note and mortgage, and she replied that she “didn’t care to have anything destroyed.”

While the defendant did not himself live in or occupy any part of the premises, he was nevertheless in contemplation of law in such possession that a continuation of that possession for the statutory period would complete the foreclosure.

The Justice presiding made no findings as to defendant’s continuance in possession as affecting final foreclosure of the right to redeem after the passing of the year, but in our opinion the character of the occupation of her tenement by the plaintiff as disclosed by this record, even if she were given notice to leave, did not affect the continued possession of defendant and that when the year required by the statute passed, the foreclosure would have been complete had it not been for the intervention of the demand for an accounting and the bill in equity seeking redemption.

In Morse v. Bassett, 132 Mass., 502, 509, the Court said that “The possession which the law contemplates may be constructive, and it will be presumed to continue after the open peaceable entry which the law requires has been formally made, even if the mortgagor remain on the premises.”

In Fletcher v. Carey,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 A. 314, 130 Me. 433, 1931 Me. LEXIS 110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-kerr-me-1931.