Taylor v. Alliance Trust Co.

71 Miss. 694
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 71 Miss. 694 (Taylor v. Alliance Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. Alliance Trust Co., 71 Miss. 694 (Mich. 1893).

Opinion

Cooper, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

It is not suggested by the evidence in the record, nor in argument of counsel, that the appellee has at any time acquired or owned lands in this state in excess of the quantity which it might have owned had it been a corporation organized under the laws of this state. But if that fact appeared, it would confer no right upon appellant to make the objection. The State alone can apply the corrective. Quitman County v. Stritze, 70 Miss., 320.

Nor is it true that there existed any public policy of the state evidenced by legislation, by reason of which the appellee was precluded from acquiring real estate in this state. Chapter 38 of the code of 1880 contained general provisions for the organization of incorporations for certain purposes. By the act of March 7, 1882 (Laws, p. 50), it was provided that “all corporations, except cities and towns, and express, telegraph and railroad companies may be created in the mode and manner, and with all the rights, honors and privileges and immunities, as provided in chapter 38 of the code of 1880.” By the same act the right was conferred upon any company so organized to “ hold and own real and personal property to any amount, and to sell, exchange and incumber the same.” It is idle to talk of the existence of a public policy against ownership of lands by corporations in the light of this legislation, by which such ownership was permitted to an unlimited extent, and was, in fact, invited and encouraged [702]*702by the simplicity of the statutes under which corporations might be formed. We fail to appreciate the distinction sought to be drawn by counsel between domestic corporations and those created by other states. It cannot be said that it is against the policy of this state to permit corporations of other states to do business here, especially where the business they are organized to do is directly encouraged to be done by domestic corporations. On the contrary, the rule of comity may be said Lo be almost universal that corporations created by one state may transact its business in any other state in which, if the corporation was a domestic one, the business might there be lawfully conducted.

We have not found the authority relied on by counsel— White v. Miller (Minn.), 54 N. W. Rep., 736 — in which it is said to have been decided that “ a negotiable promissory note, due and payable in the future according to its terms, cannot be brought to immediate maturity through a clause in a mortgage, given to secure it, authorizing the mortgagee to declare the debt due on default in any of the provisions of the mortgage.” If the suit in that case was upon the note, it may be that the decision was correct; but, if the decision was that the mortgagee-could not, though authorized so to do by the terms of the deed, proceed to subject the security to the satisfaction of the debt, we should not follow it, for a contrary practice has always prevailed in this state, and such provisions have been approved. Dunton v. Sharpe, 70 Miss., 850. We see nothing unlawful in such stipulations, and, so long as parties and not the courts are to make contracts, we know no reason why contracts, when made, should not be enforced according to their terms.

We find nothing to invalidate the title of complainant to the lands in controversy, unless it be true that appellant, by her purchase at the execution sale against- S. H. Taylor, acquired title to the land superior to that of complainant. To that inquiry we now proceed. The facts upon which the controversy in this particular rests are these: Prior [703]*703to the year 1888, one R. D. Freeman, as guardian of Dozier Taylor, loaned to the firm of Freeman Bros, a sum of money, and received therefor the note of said firm, upon which L. T. Freeman, Jane R. Freeman, C. W. Taylor and S. H. Taylor were sureties. Whether the note showed upon its face that the other makers were sureties for Freeman Bros, does not appear; we assume that it does not, but was in the usual form, and that all the subscribers thereto appear as co-makers. In the year 1888, R. D. Freeman, for the use-of C. W. Troy, brought suit on this note against L. T. Freeman, Jane R. Freeman, C. W. Taylor and S. H. Taylor, and .recovered judgment against them for the sum of $2,308,. which judgment was duly enrolled in Lee county. After-wards Mrs. L. T. Freeman paid to the plaintiff in the judgment the sum of $1,500 in full satisfaction thereof, and an entry thereof was made on the judgment-roll in these words :

“ Received of Mrs. L. T. Freeman fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500) in full payment of this judgment, and the same is-fully satisfied, and she is authorized to do therewith as she-sees proper. J. Q. Robins, Atfy for Plaintiff.”

When this entry was made does not appear, but some time afterwards S. H. Taylor, who owned the lands in controversy, executed two certain deeds of trust upon the same to-. John-1. Dunn, trustee for the Lombard Investment Company, to secure the payment of about the sum of $3,000, which he then borrowed from said company. These incumbrances were duly recorded, and, upon breach of condition,, a sale thereunder was made by a substituted trustee, at which the complainant became the purchaser.

After the execution and recording of these deeds of trust, but before the sale thereunder, Mrs. L. T. Freeman, who had paid off the judgment at law as above stated, assigned the-same to the appellant, E. B. R. Taylor, who, on the fourteenth day of July, 1891, made and filed with the clerk of the court in which the judgment had been rendered, an affi[704]*704davit, setting forth the fact that said judgment had been rendered; that the defendants were jointly and severally liable thereon, and that it had been paid by the defendant, L. T. Freeman, who afterwards assigned the same to affiant, and prayed the issuance of an execution thereunder for her use and benefit. ' IJpon the filing of this affidavit, an execution was issued as prayed, which was levied upon the lands in controversy as the pi’operty of S. H. Taylor, and a sale thereof was made, and at the sale the appellant, E. B. E. Taylor, became the purchaser thereof at the price of $210. E. B. E. Taylor conveyed a part of the land so bought to appellants, Clarke & Clarke. The execution sale was made in the year 1891, and its effect is determinable 'by the provision of the code of 1880, in which no express provision is made for the protection of the rights of bona fide purchasers, as is done by the code of 1892, § 3280.

By the code of 1880, § 998, it was provided as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
71 Miss. 694, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-alliance-trust-co-miss-1893.