United States National Bank v. Burbank

1 N.W.2d 920, 140 Neb. 784, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 203
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 16, 1942
DocketNo. 31228
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1 N.W.2d 920 (United States National Bank v. Burbank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska 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 National Bank v. Burbank, 1 N.W.2d 920, 140 Neb. 784, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 203 (Neb. 1942).

Opinion

Yeager, J.

This is an appeal from the decree of the district court on [785]*785the final report and account of the United States National Bank of Omaha, Nebraska, trustee, plaintiff and appellee, against Byron G. Burbank, defendant and appellant. The report and account were approved, and the defendant has appealed, and asserts that certain of the items in the report were improper and should not have been allowed and approved.

A somewhat extended statement is necessary to an understanding and determination of the issues presented by the record in this case.

On and prior to August 20, 1924, Lake Deuel was the owner of certain real estate situated in Omaha, Douglas county, Nebraska. On this date Deuel executed and delivered to the Peters Trust Company, a corporation, a trust deed, whereby the Peters Trust Company became trustee of this real estate. The trust was for the purpose of securing payment of 191 certain bonds in the aggregate principal sum of $105,000, bearing the same date as the trust deed and maturing on various dates beginning October 1, 1925, and ending October 1, 1934. The bonds were interest-bearing at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, payable semiannually with 10 per cent, after maturity. Later, on December 9, 1924, a supplemental trust deed was executed and delivered which added to the original trust to secure the payment of bonds all tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances upon the real estate in question. It included also all fixtures, equipment and personal property employed in the use and operation of the building on the real estate, which building had been completed after the execution of the original trust deed.

On October 1, 1932, Deuel had paid $32,000 of the indebtedness and all of the interest to that date, but on April 1, 1933, he defaulted in the payment of interest.

In 1930 the Peters Trust Company failed, and agreeable to the terms of the trust indenture the United States National Bank of Omaha, Nebraska, became successor-trustee.

On November 13, 1933, foreclosure proceedings were instituted by the successor-trustee. On May 28, 1935, a [786]*786decree in foreclosure was entered, whereupon Deuel took a statutory nine-month stay.

Two months after the default in payment of interest by Deuel, a bondholders’ protective committee, consisting of G. S. Cobb and William F. Milroy, bondholders, and Ells-worth Moser, vice-president of the United States Trust Company, was in some manner organized, purportedly for the purpose of protecting the interests of the bondholders.

Prior to foreclosure this committee conducted certain negotiations, the details of which are not sufficiently important to be set out here, looking to an adjustment of the difficulties attendant upon the default by Deuel, but nothing came of them.

After the foreclosure decree was entered, and stay had been taken by Deuel, the committee again became active and procured an offer from Deuel that he, having come into ownership by inheritance of $9,400 worth of bonds issued under the trust indenture, would withdraw his stay, surrender his bonds, and surrender title to the trustee to the property described in the original and supplemental trust indentures in consideration, in substance, of the release of any claim or right to deficiency judgment against him. On receipt of this offer the committee procured from all holders of outstanding bonds, which at that time amounted to $63,600, without considering those held by Lake Deuel himself, except from those holding $1,600 of bonds, consent to this arrangement.

Not having been able to secure the consent of all bondholders to this arrangement, the trustee instituted the action of which this is an outgrowth and a supplemental part, to which all bondholders, Lake Deuel and Eloise Deuel, his wife, and Ellsworth Moser were made parties, seeking directions as to what steps to take and what course to pursue. In the petition the facts summarized briefly here were fully detailed. All defendant bondholders except two entered voluntary appearances. The two were served by publication and defaulted. The decree recites that the Deuels answered, but the answer does not appear in the. [787]*787transcript. The defendants Moser and Cobb filed an answer on behalf of the bondholders’ committee, setting forth the activities of the committee. No other party-answered the petition. On November 9, 1935, decree was entered authorizing and directing the consummation of the proposed deal with Deuel, and authorizing and directing the issuance of land trust certificates of beneficial ownership in Princeton apartments, Nineteenth and Dodge streets, Omaha, Nebraska, which certificates will be hereinafter referred to as land trust certificates; to the bondholders in place of and in amounts equal to the value of the bonds held, and the surrender of the bonds by the holders.

The decree confirms an accounting made by the trustee, and makes the following allowances: United States National Bank of Omaha, trustee, $195 ; Ellsworth Moser and G. S. Cobb as. the bondholders’ committee, $730; Brown, Fitch & West, attorneys for Lake Deuel and Eloise Deuel, $150; Crossman, Munger & Barton, attorneys for the bondholders’ committee, $1,500; total $2,575.

There being a balance in the hands of the trustee after settlement of account and payment of allowances, it was ordered that this balance should be held until the issuance of the land trust certificates and then distributed pro rata to the certificate-holders.

The decree then concluded as follows: “That this court should, and hereby does retain jurisdiction of this cause of all of the parties to this suit and of the said trust estate for the purpose of supervising the management and control of the trust assets by the trustee, and, from time to time, giving instructions and directions to the said trustee concerning- the trust, and particularly with reference to any proposed sale or sales of the trust assets, which shall be subject to the approval of this court.”

In January, 1936, the trustee made a detailed report of its acts beginning April 13, 1933., and ending January 16, 1936, and made distribution of income from the trust to the bondholders. Following, or as a part of the same transaction, the directed exchange of bonds for land trust [788]*788certificates was made, and each receiver of a trust certificate, except Grant Lewis, Walker Lewis, C. J. McNamara, Alice Polian, Marie Polian and Marian Polian, executed an instrument in part in terms as follows: “The undersigned further acknowledges receipt of a letter from the trustee dated January 22, 1936, reporting in detail all receipts and disbursements of the trustee relative to the said Princeton apartments, and hereby ratifies, confirms, and approves all of the acts and1 doings of said trustee and the bondholders’ committee concerning the Princeton apartments trust, to date as reported in said letter, and in said lawsuit, and agrees- to the continuing jurisdiction of the court over said trustee, and the said trust estate, in the case of the United States National Bank of Omaha, plaintiff, vs. Ada E. Alexander, et al., defendants, doc. 313-, No. 19, in the district court of Douglas county, Nebraska, in which case the undersigned has made a voluntary appearance, and is a party defendant.”

This trust, authorized and under the control of the district court, existed until decree on the final report of the trustee was entered on March 21, 1941.

On April 17, 1940, Byron G.

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Bluebook (online)
1 N.W.2d 920, 140 Neb. 784, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-national-bank-v-burbank-neb-1942.