Van Dyke v. Grigsby

75 N.W. 274, 11 S.D. 30, 1898 S.D. LEXIS 67
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMay 21, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 75 N.W. 274 (Van Dyke v. Grigsby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Dyke v. Grigsby, 75 N.W. 274, 11 S.D. 30, 1898 S.D. LEXIS 67 (S.D. 1898).

Opinion

Corson, P. J.

This is an action brought by plaintiff to

cancel a notice of Us pend,ens filed in an action wherein said defendant Grigsby was plaintiff, and one Frederick T. Day was defendant, and to vacate and set aside a warrant of attachment [34]*34issued in said action, and the levy made thereunder, so far as-the same affects certain lands claimed by the plaintiff, and to quiet plaintiff’s title to said lands. The findings and judgment were in favor of the defendants, and the plaintiff appeals. The defendant Peck was made defendant as receiver, and will not be further noticed in this opinion.

It is undispúted that the legal title of record, at the time the Us pendens was filed, and warrant of attachment issued, and levy made thereunder on June 3, 1893, was in said Frederick T. Day; but the plaintiff claims (1) that the property at that time was held by said Day in trust for the plaintiff; (2) that said Day had, in fact, prior to the issuance of said warrant of attachment, conveyed said property to the plaintiff by deed dated in 1890, but not then recorded. In order to a proper understanding of the case, a somewhat full statement of the facts will be necessary: The plaintiff and said Day were in 1884, and prior and subsequently, residents of Milwaukee, Wis. Day was extensively engaged in the business of loaning money on farm lands in the Northwestern states, including the then territory of Dakota. The plaintiff advanced money to Day to loan for him, under a verbal agreement that Day was to guaranty all loans — principal and interest. This verbal agreement continued until March, 1893, when the parties made the following written agreement: ‘Tn consideration of the guaranty by F. T. DajT that I shall l’eceive within five years from the date hereof (or so much further time as may be now mutually agreed upon), principal of the loans described in the annexed list, and interest now unpaid to me‘thereon, as is. intended to be shown by said list, at the rate of seven per cent per annum, and interest on interest at the same rate, and the further agreement on [35]*35the part of F. T. Day that he will pay the 'taxes which it is necessary to pay oh any of the lands by which these loans are secured, together with the expenses of any foreclosures or litigation that may be necessary to collect such loans, I, John H. Van Dyke, agree to accept the principal of said loans, together with interest thereon now unpaid to me, at the rate of seven per cent per annum, and interest on interest at the same rate, allowing said Day to retain any excess he may receive above such principal and interest, and also allowing him to manage such loans, and lease subject to sale, and sell and dispose of, any lands I may obtain through them, as he deems best; and I further agree to furnish conveyance of quitclaim or special warranty deeds (namely, with covenants against my own acts) of any lands I may acquire thereby, when they shall be sold by Mr. Day; and also; in case of sale of any such lands, I will accept, as a charge against my account on Mr. Day’s books, the mortgages or contracts taken on such sales — principal and interest thereon at the rate of seven per, cent per annum being guaranteed'by said Day. And I, the said F. T. Day, in consideration of above agreement on the part of John H. Van Dyke, hereby guaranty to collect within five years (or such further time as may be mutually agreed upon) the principal of the loans described in the list hereto attached, with interest unpaid to Mr. Van Dyke at seven per cent per annum, and interest on interest at the same rate. J further guaranty the collection of principal, with interest at seven per cent, of all mortgages or contracts which from time to time may be taken on the sale by me of any lands John Van Dyke may acquire • through said loans; and I agree to pay all taxes which may be necessary to pay on such lands, and also to pay the expenses of foreclos[36]*36ure, or any litigation which' may be necessary, under this agreement, to collect such loans, or any other expenses incident thereto. It is mutually agreed that the said respective loans shall be closed up as soon as they reasonably can be, inside oí the said five years, and that as soon as each loan is paid, whether by sale of the security, or in. any manner, that full settlement shall be made of that loan; and the principal thereon, together with interest, and interest on interest, due Mr. Van Dyke, shall be paid to him. Dated Milwaukee, March 1, 1893. F. T. Day. John R. Van Dyke.” Mr. Day testifies the verbal agreement was substantially the same. In 1884 Mr. Day loaned $1,000 to one'Hill, in Minnehaha county; taking a mortgage on the property in controversy in his own name, which 'mortgage was subsequently foreclosed by Day and the property bid in in his own name. Day assigned the mortgage to the plaintiff, but the assignment was never recorded; and in 1890 he executed a deed to the property to the plaintiff, but kept it among the papers relating to plaintiff’s transactions in his own office; and it was not delivered to plaintiff until the fall of 1893 — several months after the levy of the warrant of attachment. As to the manner in which the business between Day and the plaintiff was conducted, Mr. Day says: “When moneys came in from any source, we credited them ,to him, and charged him with loans as we made them. That is all — a debit and credit account.” Mr. Sims, who was bookkeeper for six or seven years prior to 1893 for Mr. Day, says, in regard to their manner of doing business, that “Mr. Van Dyke with probably few exceptions, during that period, according to the books, was a creditor of Mr. Day. As loans would be paid in they would be reinvested, and oftentimes the money would lie [37]*37there quite a length of time before they were invested. In 1891 there was a very lai?ge sum uninvested, and Mr. Day paid Mr. Van Dyke interest on it; that is, idle money that was lying uninvested.” In relation to the business, the plaintiff sáys: “A book was furnished me, containing a statement of each loan made for me by Mr. Day — the date of the loan, the rate of interest, how and when payable, etc. This Andrew J. Hill loan is entered in that book in its regular order, which book was got up by Mr. Day for me at my request, to enable me to follow the loans. When I would sign the receipts for the interest, I would charge them on my book; and, when they were paid to me I would enter them in it. That would enable me to follow each loan.” In relation to'the quit-claim deed executed by Day to plaintifl;, Day says: “I didn’t deed it for the purpose of conveying title. I deeded it for protection. Those quit-claim deeds were deposited there for the protection of the parties and not to convey the title, except in case of my death.” As before stated, this deed was delivered to the plaintiff in the fall of 1893 by Day’s assignee.

It is difficult to understand or define the precise nature of the transactions between Mr. Day and the plaintiff. .The plaintiff contends that Day, in making this loan and using plaintiff’s money, was the agent of plaintiff, and that, consequently, the mortgage and deed taken on the foreclosure sale were in equity the mortgage and deed of the plaintiff, and that Day simply held the legal title in trust for the plaintiff. But it will be observed that Day had guarantied the payment, not only of the principal, but of all interest, and interest on deferred interest, to the plaintiff, whether the money was'employed or not, and to pay interest on deferred interest, whether col[38]

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Related

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80 N.W. 199 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1899)

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Bluebook (online)
75 N.W. 274, 11 S.D. 30, 1898 S.D. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-dyke-v-grigsby-sd-1898.