Springer v. Foster

60 N.E. 720, 27 Ind. App. 15, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 3
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 28, 1901
DocketNo. 3,763
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 60 N.E. 720 (Springer v. Foster) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Springer v. Foster, 60 N.E. 720, 27 Ind. App. 15, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 3 (Ind. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

Black, C. J.

— In the complaint of the appellant, Warren Springer, against the appellee, Marietta Foster, a demurrer to which for want of facts was sustained, it was shown that one Joseph M. Kean, the owner of certain real estate described, being adjoining parcels aggregating 1,400 acres, in Jasper county, on the 13th of April, 1894, his wife joining, mortgaged said real estate to one Samuel H. Adams, to secure the payment of one note of said Joseph M. Kean to the mortgagee for $10,000, due five years after May 1, 1894, with interest at the rate of seven per cent., payable semiannually after the last mentioned date; that with the mortgage and the principal note Kean executed his ten interest notes, or coupons, each for $350, payable November 1, 1894, and each six months thereafter, with interest at the rate of eight per cent, after due, the mortgage being payable with attorney’s fees, and it being stipulated in the mortgage that in case of any defalcation in any of the payments of principal or interest the whole amount secured might, at the option of the holders of the notes, become due and payable; that afterward Kean, the mortgagor, sold and conveyed all of said real estate covered by the mortgage, except a certain tract described of eighty acres, to John Foster, who assumed and agreed to pay said mortgage for $10,000 and interest thereon after May 1, 1895 ; that at the same time, date, and transaction when the conveyance to John Foster was made, Kean, the mortgagor, sold and conveyed the remaining [17]*17eighty acres of said mortgaged real estate to the appellee, who still owns the same; that in the deed of conveyance to the appellee she assumed and agreed to pay the whole of said mortgage for $10,000, with all interest accruing thereon after May 1, 1895; that the deeds to the Fosters, which together included the whole of the mortgaged real estate, were made, executed, and delivered by Kean, the mortgagor, at the same time and as one and the same transaction, to which Kean, the mortgagor, and the two Fosters were parties; that afterward, John Foster and the appellee, who was bis wife, by their quitclaim deed dated September 1, 1896, which contained no covenants, the consideration therein expressed being $1, conveyed and quitclaimed to the appellant the real estate so conveyed by Kean to John Foster together with two parcels of forty acres each not included in the mortgage, but adjoining the mortgaged parcels conveyed to John Foster, the conveyance not including the land so conveyed to the appellee or any part thereof, the deed of conveyance to the appellant purporting to convey 1,400 acres of land, “together with all improvements, live stock, machinery, fixtures, and one-third of the crops now on the premises; the said farm now being subject to an encumbrance of $10,000 and the taxes of 1896.”

It was further shown that seven of the interest notes became due and remained unpaid, “and all persons refusing and wholly failing to pay any part of the same for the defendant herein or any other person, this plaintiff was compelled to and did pay the whole of each of said interest notes.” It was alleged that by reason of the provision above mentioned making the whole mortgage debt due upon failure to pay any part of it when due, and the failure of the appellee “to pay her proportionate pai*t of said interest, this plaintiff did pay the same to prevent the foreclosure of said mortgage against him on account of her default; that no part of the said amount has ever been repaid to this plain[18]*18tiff, and the same is now long past due and remains wholly unpaid; that to prosecute this action plaintiff has been compelled to employ an attorney, and a reasonable fee for his attorney herein is $100.” Prayer, that the appellantbe subrogated “to the rights of the said mortgage” as against the appellee, “for the amount of the said interest which this plaintiff has paid on the said mortgage which should have been paid by the said defendant, for the sum of $300 for his principal, interest, and attorney’s fees herein, all without relief from valuation or appraisement laws, and that the said mortgaged real estate be ordered sold, to pay the said judgment of this plaintiff, and that the plaintiff have all other proper relief in the premises.”

The relief prayed for by the appellant, if allowable, is to be sought and administered upon equitable principles. The anomalous assumptions of the entire mortgage debt by both of the mortgagor’s grantees of the portions of the mortgaged real estate conveyed to John Foster and his wife, respectively, were promises made by them severally to the mortgagor for the benefit of the mortgagee, and no personal liability of either of these grantees inured to the appellant, who received, for the expressed consideration of $1, merely the interest of John Foster in the mortgaged land, with additional land, by deed, without covenants, in which the land thereby conveyed was expressly declared to be subject to an encumbrance of the amount of the mortgage assumed by the Fosters severally. The portion of the mortgaged real estate thus conveyed to the appellant was primarily liable for the mortgage debt, and the portion owned by the appellee also continued subject to the mortgage, and, as between the mortgagee, the mortgagor, and the appellee, primarily liable for the debt.

The general rule is that where the estates of two or more persons are subject to a common encumbrance, for the payment of a common debt, it is to be borne ratably by all, and one who pays the whole for the benefit of all will have the [19]*19right to hold all the estates thus redeemed, until the others shall reimburse him an equitable proportion of the sum which he has thus paid for their common benefit. Sheldon on Subrogation, §74.

Where one discharges a lien which rests alike upon the property of himself and others, he is entitled to contribution from those whose property has been relieved from the common burden. Falley v. Gribling, 128 Ind. 110; Kaufman v. Elder, 154 Ind. 157. The doctrine of contribution in such cases rests on the principle that when parties stand in equal right equality of burthen becomes equity. Cook v. Cook, 92 Ind. 398.

When a mortgage rests upon land, “which is owned by several persons in such a manner that their equities as between themselves are equal, and one of them redeems from the mortgage, he is entitled to a pro rata contribution from the other owners, and may keep the lien of the mortgage alive, by equitable assignment, as security for such contributions.” Pomeroy’s Eq. Jur., §1222.

The complaint before us does not show that the plaintiff seeking contribution and subrogation has paid the entire mortgage debt. In Rooker v. Benson, 83 Ind. 250, 256, the following statement in Grove v. Brien, 1 Md. 438, is quoted with approval: “A partial payment by a surety does not operate as an assignment to him, pro tanto, so as to enable him to exercise any control over the judgment or execution, the original creditor having that power until he is fully satisfied.”

A surety or a tenant in common is not entitled to be subrogated to the creditor’s rights in the security held by him until the whole debt has been paid. Zook v. Clemmer, 44 Ind. 15; Vert v. Voss, 74 Ind. 565; Rooker v. Benson, supra; Carithers v. Stuart, 87 Ind. 424.

In the absence of agreement of the creditor and the person making a payment, subrogation is not permitted where the debt is not hilly paid. Stuckman v. Roose,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 N.E. 720, 27 Ind. App. 15, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/springer-v-foster-indctapp-1901.