Snyder v. Chicago, Santa Fe & California Railway Co.

33 S.W. 67, 131 Mo. 568, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 103
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 11, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 33 S.W. 67 (Snyder v. Chicago, Santa Fe & California Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snyder v. Chicago, Santa Fe & California Railway Co., 33 S.W. 67, 131 Mo. 568, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 103 (Mo. 1895).

Opinion

Brace, P. J.

This is an action in' ejectment to recover possession of a strip of land in the southwest quarter of section ll, township 56, range 19, in Chariton county, inclosed and occupied by defendant as a right of way, running diagonally through said quarter section and containing about fourteen acres. The case was tried before the court without a jury; the plaintiff had judgment and the defendant appeals.

The facts, so far as necessary to be stated for the [572]*572purpose of this opinion, are that on the twenty-eighth of May, 1867, John B. Holloway, then the owner of said quarter section, executed a mortgage to Chariton county conveying the same to said county to secure the paymenfcof $1,584.54 borrowed by him of the school funds of said county. In January, 1882, the said Holloway sold and conveyed said quarter section to O. H. Woods and wife, subject to said mortgage. On the ninth of February, 1882, the said Woods and wife executed a deed of trust with power of sale conveying said land to James Snyder, trustee, to secure the payment to plaintiff of a note of said Woods for the sum of $1,050.

In February, 1887, the defendant went into possession of the strip of land in said quarter section in controversy, and on the seventh of March thereafter the said Woods and wife executed and delivered a warranty deed therefor, to the defendant. On the fifth of February, 1889, the quarter section was sold under the deed of trust of the ninth of February, 1882; was purchased for the plaintiff by his attorney, who received the trustee’s deed theiefor, and transferred the title thus acquired to plaintiff.

On the twelfth of July, 1889, the quarter section was again sold, under an order of the county court foreclosing said mortgage to the county of the twenty-eighth of May, 1867, and the plaintiff became the purchaser thereof, and received a deed therefor, in pursuance of such sale, and, on the twenty-fifth of September, 1889, instituted this suit.

The cause was afterwards tried in the circuit court upon the issues then made, and judgment rendered for the defendant, from which the plaintiff appealed to this court, where the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded for new trial. Upon that appeal it was decided that thé plaintiff was not estopped from asserting his right to the possession of the land in controversy [573]*573under the legal title acquired by him by his deed made in pursuance of the sale made in foreclosure of the county mortgage, and that his right of action was not barred by the statute of limitations (112 Mo. 527).

After the cause was remanded the defendant filed an amended answer, tendering new issues, upon which the case was tried the second time, and from the judgment in this second trial the present appeal is prosecuted.

The main issue tendered by the amended answer is that Holloway’s equity of’ redemption acquired by Woods was not foreclosed by the sale made by order of the county court on the twelfth of July, 1889, for the following reasons:

“First. Because said pretended sale was not made at the courthouse in Keytesville, in which the circuit and other courts were held at the time of the execution of said mortgage deed, which was the courthouse designated and intended by the parties to said mortgage deed.
“Second. Because said sale was not made by the person who was sheriff of Chariton county at the time of the execution of said mortgage deed, as contemplated by said deed, and there was no provision in said instrument conferring such power of sale upon his successor in office.
“Third,. Because said property was not sold for cash in hand as required by law, and by the terms of said mortgage deed, and by the terms of the advertisement giving notice of the sale, but was unlawfully attempted to be sold to plaintiff upon time payments and without the payment of cash, and thus a secret and unlawful preference was given plaintiff, which was a fraud upon this defendant, and others who might desire to bid upon said property.
[574]*574“Fourth. Because said mortgage deed is so vague, indefinite, and uncertain that a resort to foreclosure in court should have been resorted to.
“Fifth. ' Because no proper, sufficient legal notice by publication of such sale was given in any newspaper printed and published in 'Chariton county, and because said attempted publication was not for the length of time required by law, and did not correctly give the time, terms of sale, place, and a description of' the property to be sold.
“Sixth. Because there is no provision in said mortgage deed permitting a sale ‘without suit on the mortgage,’ as required by law, and a sale without suit on the mortgage is void.
“Seventh. Because the order of the county court, dated May 8, 1889, conferred no authority upon said O. B. Anderson; the power of said county court to order such sale, if any existed, being contained in, and confined to, an order of sale made of record by said county court in 1888, which said order of sale of 1888 was delivered to said O. B. Anderson, but was never executed by him.”

The answer also alleges that the trustee’s deed, made in pursuance of the sale of the fifth of February, 1889, is void for the following reasons:

“First. Because although it was provided in said deed of trust and in the advertisement of sale, that said sale would be for cash, yet the sale was not in fact made for cash, but by a secret arrangement upon credit, which was a fraud upon this defendant and upon others desiring to bid upon said property.
“Second. Because said trustee’s deed does not state that thirty days’ public notice of the time, terms, and place of sale, and of the property to be sold, had been given.
[575]*57511 Third. Because the Chariton Courier, in which the notice is said to have been given, is not, and was not at the time, a newspaper printed and published in Chariton county.
“Fourth. Because said trustee’s deed does not purport to have been made according to the terms of the deed of trust, in that it does not state that the sale to J. C. Crawley was for cash.”

And concludes with the following prayer:

“Wherefore, defendant prays that the said trustee’s deeds may be set aside and for naught held, and that plaintiff being subrogated to the rights of the county, under the county mortgage, may be remitted to his remedy by foreclosure in court, to the end that the real estate covered by said deeds of trust may be sold in the inverse order of alienation to protect the defendant’s rights, and for such other relief as may be equitable and just, and defendant herewith offers to pay such portion of the debt secured by such deeds of trusts as it ought in equity to pay, and to do and perform the orders and decrees of the court in the premises.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 S.W. 67, 131 Mo. 568, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snyder-v-chicago-santa-fe-california-railway-co-mo-1895.