United States Mortgage Co. v. Marquam

69 P. 37, 41 Or. 391, 1902 Ore. LEXIS 100
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 3, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 69 P. 37 (United States Mortgage Co. v. Marquam) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States Mortgage Co. v. Marquam, 69 P. 37, 41 Or. 391, 1902 Ore. LEXIS 100 (Or. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Wodverton,

after stating 'the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.

1. We will consider the numerous questions presented as they appear to arise upon the record. It is first urged that the Title Company was the agent of the mortgagee under the trust agreement for the collection of rents and profits and their application to the payment of taxes and interest, and that, such agent having collected sufficient of the rents to discharge the interest notes, the suit was prematurely instituted. These are matters of fact, and were disposed of under the plea in abatement, and, as the evidence has not been brought up, the findings of the trial court are conclusive.

[400]*4002. In this connection there was another question presented relating to the leasing of divers parcels of realty to continue beyond the maturity of the mortgage, whereby it is claimed that the lien of the plaintiff acquired by virtue of the mortgage has been waived and forfeited, or at least postponed until all damages arising from said unauthorized leasing are made good. The court found, however, that the Title Company had made two leases, only, extending beyond the maturity of said mortgage, neither of which was at the instance of the Mortgage Company. This was not effective to postpone or forfeit the plaintiff’s mortgage lien. Plaintiff’s action in relation thereto, as so found, cannot be construed to extend beyond the bare assent of a mortgagee to the leasing. It was not an affirmative impairment upon its part of the value of the mortgaged property, and such was not its purpose by any inference that can be drawn from the transaction.

3. The next question presented by appellants is that the loan was usurious. This contention is necessarily based upon the hypothesis that the Title Company was the agent of the lender in the control and management of the trust property and the collection of the rents, issues, and profits, for which services it charged and received a commission from Marquam and wife. Such relation, however, was found not to exist under the plea in abatement; but, even if it did, the contract is not shown.to usurious. The statute (Hill’s Ann. Laws, § 3593,) provides that all contracts made or entered into in this state on which the rate of interest is 8 per cent or under, whereby one party shall agree to pay the taxes on the debt, credit, or mortgage, shall not be deemed or taken to be usurious ; and the argument is that any contract to pay anything beyond the rate agreed upon, however small, with taxes, although such rate is under 8 per cent, is usurious; that is to say, as applied to the case at bar, the parties having agreed upon 7 per cent, with taxes added, any further charge for the use of the money in addition to the agreed rate would render the contract invalid, whether it was made thereby to exceed 8 per cent or not. This is neither the spirit nor the intend[401]*401ment of the statute. Parties are permitted to contract for interest as high as 8 per cent, with taxes added; and if all rates, charges, or other compensation agreed upon for the use of the money do not exceed the rate, aside from the taxes on the debt or obligation, the transaction does not fall within the interdiction of the law, and is, therefore, not usurious. Now, it is alleged that the Mortgage Company charged commissions for collecting rents, etc., diming a period of five years, amounting to $3,000, and claim brokerage and salary, covering the same period, of $9,000, aggregating $12,000, or $2,400 per annum. At 8 per cent, the interest charge would be $24,000 per annum on the amount of the loan, but the rate agreed upon was 7 per cent, or $21,000, per annum, thus leaving a margin of $3,000, which exceeds the alleged additional charges and commissions; so that, conceding the allegations of Marquam and wife to be true, — as we must where the pleadings are tested by demurrer, — usury has not been established.

4. The second separate defense proceeds upon the idea that the plaintiff has forfeited its mortgage lien, and is estopped to insist upon its foreclosure, by reason of having been instrumental in the execution of the unauthorized leases of parcels of realty. It appears by the answer that some five leases were executed extending beyond the time designated in the supplemental trust agreement, which permitted the trustee to execute them for one year beyond the maturity of such mortgage. It is not shown, however, what rents were stipulated for, or in what respect they were injurious to Marquam’s reversionary estate, and the statement that the leases are apparent incumbrances and clouds upon Marquam’s title is a mere conclusion of law; so that the facts pleaded are wholly insufficient to create an estoppel, much less to require a forfeiture of the Mortgage Company’s lien.

5. It is next urged that by the mortgage and deed of trust Marquam and wife transferred substantially all their property to the mortgage and title companies, which operated as a hindrance and fraud upon divers other of their creditors, and was [402]*402so intended by the parties concerned, and that the mortgage is void on that account. Giving to the allegations of the answer their strongest interpretation in favor of the pleader, the transaction, being founded upon a consideration, was voidable only at the instance of the creditors, but valid as between the parties to the contract, and enforceable in equity: Bradtfeldt v. Cooke, 27 Or. 194 (40 Pac. 1, 50 Am. St. Rep. 701). The plea is therefore unavailable, as held by the trial court.

The last defense interposed to the complaint is that the Title Company, as plaintiff’s agent, collected the rents and profits of the property deeded in trust, which it failed and neglected to apply in discharge of the interest notes, and converted the same to its own use, and that an accounting is necessary to- a determination of the amount thus collected. If it be conceded that the answer is technically sufficient, the issue was tried out between Marquam and wife and the Title Company, and after a full hearing it was found that the company had conducted and managed said trust carefully and honestly, and had punctiliously accounted for all sums collected and received by virtue thereof. This, in effect, disposed of all the matters in controversy on the merits, and the comet of equity would not be warranted in reversing the decree of the trial court upon a purely technical objection, which could not result in any difrerent adjudication in the end.

6. It is next urged that the Title Company could have no relief by cross complaint, because the trust agreement had not terminated, either by performance or by rescission, and that no final accounting could be had, nor a lien decreed against the property in favor of the trustee, until one or the other of these conditions existed. The trust agreement, as shown by its terms and conditions, was entered into to enable the Title Company to manage the property, and from the rents and profits arising therefrom to discharge the expenses of management and interest charges on the mortgage so far as they were sufficient, and, if there was a surplus, to apply it pro rata to certain specified indebtedness of Marquam and Avife, and after these to apply it on the principal sum for which the [403]*403mortgage was given.

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Bluebook (online)
69 P. 37, 41 Or. 391, 1902 Ore. LEXIS 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-mortgage-co-v-marquam-or-1902.