Smith v. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance

106 N.W.2d 515, 362 Mich. 114
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 2, 1960
DocketDocket 27, Calendar 48,421
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 106 N.W.2d 515 (Smith v. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance, 106 N.W.2d 515, 362 Mich. 114 (Mich. 1960).

Opinion

Kavanagh, J.

Plaintiffs filed a hill of complaint in the circuit court for the county of Wayne attempting to restrain the defendant life insurance company *117 from in any manner interfering with them in the collection of rents from the tenants under existing leases on plaintiffs’ property. They further sought to require defendant insurance company to account for and pay over to them all moneys received by defendant from the tenants.

Defendant insurance company filed an answer denying plaintiffs were entitled to any relief and alleging that it was collecting the rents from plaintiffs’ tenants relying on the provisions of a mortgage given by plaintiffs Smith to defendant assigning the rents to defendant in the event of default in the mortgage payments, under the provisions of PA 1953, No 210. 1 Defendant filed an answer and a cross bill setting forth that it was, under the statute, foreclosing a mortgage executed and delivered to it as mortgagee. It sought the. appointment of a receiver to collect the rents and apply the same to the maintenance and management of the property, including payment of taxes, insurance, and interest on the mortgage. Plaintiffs filed an answer as cross defendants denying defendant and cross plaintiff was entitled to such relief.

A stipulation of facts was submitted to the court and supplemented by some testimony.

Plaintiffs Barney Smith and Marion Smith, his wife, were the sole owners of certain commercial real property located on West Vernor highway in the city of Detroit, Michigan. The property consisted of 4 retail stores situated in one building and the land incident thereto. On January 13, 1955, Mr. and Mrs. Smith borrowed $110,000 from defendant The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company and executed a note and mortgage to secure repayment of the amount borrowed. The mortgage note required payments of principal and interest in the amount of *118 $869.90 on the first day of each month commencing on March 1, 1955.

At the time of execution of the mortgage there were 4 leases existing upon the mortgaged premises. The mortgage note contained the following provision :

“The holder hereof agrees to look only to the property covered by the mortgage securing this note, and in case of foreclosure of said mortgage to make no claim against the makers hereof for any deficiency created by such foreclosure, or any other personal liability.”

■ The mortgage contained the following provision assigning the rents to the mortgagee in the event of default:

“And in event of any default or defaults in paying said principal or interest, such rents and profits are hereby assigned to the holder of this- mortgage as further security for the payment of said indebtedness.”

Subsequent to the execution of the mortgage and note plaintiffs Smith sold Robert L. Fenton and Theodore Schwartz a partial interest in the property. Default occurred in the terms and conditions of the mortgage in that no payments of principal and interest were made from February 1, 1958, to the time of trial. On April 30,1958, the mortgagee filed and recorded in the office of the Wayne county register of deeds a notice of default in the terms and conditions of said mortgage, and on the same date true and exact copies of the notice and mortgage were served by the mortgagee upon each tenant and occupier of the mortgaged premises. Defendant contends the recorded notice was served and filed in accordance with the terms of PA 1953, No 210.

. On June..20, ,1958, the mortgagee commenced statutory advertisement procedure to foreclose the mort *119 gage, pursuant to the power of sale therein contained, and on October 17, 1958, such sale was held. The mortgagee was the only bidder at the sale, and its bid was in the amount of $94,777.22, leaving a deficiency in the amount of $5,089.46. Pursuant to such sale, a sheriff’s deed was executed and delivered on October 17, 1958, to the mortgagee, which deed was recorded October 24,1958, in the office of the register of deeds for Wayne county.

On June 20,1958, appellants commenced the present action to enjoin the mortgagee from the collec tion of rents. Cadroy Management Company was appointed by the trial court under a temporary order •to collect the rents during the pendency of the litigation. Cadroy Management' Company was a partnership composed of Barney Smith, one of the mortgagors, Ben B. Fenton (father of plaintiff Robert L. Fenton) and 2 others. Cadroy Management Company and Associates, Incorporated — another company owned and controlled by plaintiffs — intervened as plaintiffs. At the time of trial in March, 1959, the 1959 Wayne county taxes in the amount of $2,327.52 (including interest and penalties) and the second half of the 1958 city of Detroit taxes in the amount of $1,032.30 were unpaid.

Following trial, the circuit court dismissed plaintiffs’ bill of complaint. The trial court entered a decree on defendant’s cross bill providing for the disposition of the rents collected to discharge the deficiency ; providing for payment of unpaid taxes; and appointing a receiver in the place of Cadroy Management Company to carry out the terms of the decree. The court’s decree held that defendant, as mortgagee, was entitled to the receipt of all rents collected from April 30, 1958, from or due from tenants whose leases were in existence at the time the • mortgage was given. It further held that on October 17, 1958, the mortgage was foreclosed and *120 that such sale resulted in a deficiency in the amount of $5,089.46. The trial court held the rent collections after foreclosure amounted to $400. The court limited defendant’s right to receive rents as mortgagee to the amount of such deficiency less such deduction plus interest from and after October 17, 1958, the date of sale. The trial court further .decreed that rents from the premises should be used to maintain the premises, including the payment of all taxes and insurance premiums. The court appointed a new receiver to carry out the terms of the decree and required Oadroy Management Company to account for the moneys it collected. The court further directed the receiver to apply the moneys collected from rents under the 4 leases to reimburse the defendant for the sum of $4,689.46 with interest at 7% from October 17,1958, to the date of payment, or such portion of such sum as the funds would permit. Any balance remaining in the hands of the receiver was to be applied to the payment of unpaid and delinquent taxes, interest and penalties, or such part of them as such moneys would permit. The receiver was to be paid a reasonable sum per month for his services. He was to use such balance and current collections of rents to pay any real-estate taxes or portion thereof levied or imposed against the premises after April 30, 1958, including any portion of the 1958 taxes left unpaid, and the 1959 city of Detroit taxes levied against such premises pro rata to October 17,1959, the date of expiration of the redemption period. The receiver was to pay operating expenses and insurance policy premiums due or to become due to October 17, 1959.

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Bluebook (online)
106 N.W.2d 515, 362 Mich. 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-mutual-benefit-life-insurance-mich-1960.