Vogt v. Calvary Lutheran University Missionary Society

251 N.W. 239, 213 Wis. 380, 1933 Wisc. LEXIS 149
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 251 N.W. 239 (Vogt v. Calvary Lutheran University Missionary Society) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vogt v. Calvary Lutheran University Missionary Society, 251 N.W. 239, 213 Wis. 380, 1933 Wisc. LEXIS 149 (Wis. 1933).

Opinion

FRITZ, J.

The complaint does not adequately state the facts or clearly indicate the theory upon which, upon the trial, the court ultimately held that the plaintiff was entitled to recover from the defendant on an undertaking which the latter gave to plaintiff on September 3, 1925. The essential facts and legal consequences which support the court’s findings and conclusions of law, and the judgment, from which defendant appealed, are as follows:

In March, 1922, George Ellman, who then had a second mortgage on land subsequently acquired by the defendant, paid interest which was over due on a loan secured by a first mortgage on that land. He advanced that interest under an agreement with the holder of the first mortgage that, if on the foreclosure thereof sufficient was realized to pay the amount due including such interest advanced by Ellman, he would be repaid. In October, 1923, Ellman advanced the money for another payment of interest which had accrued [382]*382on the first-mortgage loan. He was not liable for that interest and did not make such payments as an intermeddler or mere volunteer, but solely to protect his own interest in the land by virtue of his second mortgage. Others who had made that first-mortgage loan or who assumed it on acquiring the equity were liable, and they would be benefited by Ellman’s payments of that interest if the property were entirely relieved from the lien therefor which was afforded by the first mortgage. Consequently, equity immediately operated in favor of Ellman by preserving such lien claim to him. Upon his advancing that interest he became sub-rogated to the extent of his advances to the lien of the first mortgage, with the same right to enforce it as the first mortgagee possessed, so that Ellman should not suffer loss, to the gain of those who, although in default, would otherwise derive the benefit of his payment. Charmley v. Charmley, 125 Wis. 297, 103 N. W. 1106; Tellett v. Albregtson, 160 Wis. 487, 152 N. W. 152.

Meanwhile, on March 16, 1922, Ellman had commenced an action to foreclose his second mortgage and, in connection with that action, a lis pendens was duly filed on April 18, 1922. In that action judgment was duly entered for the amount due on the loan secured by that second mortgage, and the foreclosure sale was noticed for August 3, 1923. To procure a postponement of that sale, Vera Vogt, the plaintiff in the action now at bar, who then held a lien by virtue of a judgment against E. C. Vogt on his vendee’s interest in the land under a land contract, advanced $2,800, which were applied as a payment to Ellman on account of his foreclosure judgment. However, on November 23, 1923, at a sheriff’s sale pursuant to the Ellman’s judgment of foreclosure, the property was sold to Vera Vogt for $39,555, under the expressed condition that the sale was subject to the first mortgage of $30,000 with interest from August 12, 1923, and also the subrogated interest paid by [383]*383Ellman of $2,315.32, and the 1922 taxes. Vera Vogt then paid down $1,500, and on December 17, 1923, that sale was confirmed by the court.

On January 16, 1924, Vera Vogt and George J. Weigle entered into .a contract under which Weigle agreed to deposit into court the unpaid balance of her bid at the sheriff’s sale, and she agreed to convey to him all of the interest which she had in the property as the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale, and as the wife and a judgment creditor of E. C. Vogt. That contract also provided that she had an option to repurchase a portion of the land at specified prices within certain periods, and that if she failed to pay the specified amount before the expiration of such periods, she was to have “no right in and to said property either by virtue of this option or otherwise.” In respect to those provisions it. must be noted that, as Vera Vogt, when she executed that contract, and pursuant thereto a quitclaim deed, to Weigle, on January 16, 1924, did not have any interest in Ellman’s claim and right to subrogation, and it was not then even contemplated that she would thereafter acquire that claim and right, there is no basis for holding that her quitclaim deed was intended to convey anything more than the particular interests which were enumerated in that contract and which, as enumerated, did not include Ellman’s claim and right, or any interest subsequently acquired or vesting in her. For the same reason there is no basis for holding that the word “otherwise” in the provision in that contract that, if Vera Vogt did not exercise her option, she was to have no right “by virtue of this option or otherwise” in the property, was intended to deprive her of such an after-acquired right. That contract of January 16, 1924, further provided that, if out of the moneys deposited in court, payment is made to Ellman, as reimbursement for moneys advanced by him for interest on the first-mortgage loan, so that (quoting) “the indebtedness of George J. Weigle on the first [384]*384mortgage or on the land” is thereby decreased, then a deduction “to the extent of the payment so made” was to be made in the purchase price which was to be paid by Vera Vogt, if she elected to purchase under her option. Those provisions are very significant. They disclose .that Weigle was fully aware of the fact that Ellman was to be reimbursed for interest which he had advanced on account of the first mortgage; that Ellman’s claim for reimbursement was considered the indebtedness of George J. Weigle on the first mortgage or on the land; and that, if the claim was not satisfied out of the money deposited in payment of the bid on the foreclosure sale, Ellman’s claim constituted “indebtedness of Weigle on the first mortgage or on the land.”

Upon plaintiff’s delivery of her quitclaim deed to Weigle on January 16, 1924, he deposited in court the balance to be paid on her bid, and on January 21, 1924, the court, in that foreclosure action, ordered that there be paid to Ellman, out of that deposit, the amount of his judgment, less the $2,800 theretofore advanced by Vera Vogt to pay to him on that judgment. Weigle conveyed the premises to defendant on April 26, 1924.

On May 6, 1924, in further proceedings in that foreclosure action, the court made findings of fact and conclusions of law in relation to the final distribution of the surplus of the proceeds of the foreclosure sale, and the final judgment was entered on May 8, 1924. In and by those findings, conclusions, and judgment, the court then adjudicated that the amounts advanced by Ellman for interest on the first-mortgage loan had not been included in the judgment of foreclosure on his second mortgage and that no part thereof had been paid to him; and that such advances, amounting in the aggregate to $2,370.12, were to- be paid to him “by the purchaser, Vera Vogt, out of the funds in the hands of the clerk of this court; provided, however, that upon payment thereof the said Vera Vogt be subrogated to all rights [385]*385of said George Ellman in and to the payment of said sum of money, nothing herein contained to be deemed to release any claim that the plaintiff, George Ellman, had by virtue of having made the advances of interest upon the first mortgage.” It is apparent from those provisions that Ellman’s claim for those advances was not included in the judgment which he recovered in that foreclosure action; that his right to reimbursement and subrogation was expressly and duly preserved in the course of the proceedings in that action; and that those provisions were intended to and did preserve for Vera Vogt, Ellman’s right to repayment and subrogation for those advances.

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Bluebook (online)
251 N.W. 239, 213 Wis. 380, 1933 Wisc. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vogt-v-calvary-lutheran-university-missionary-society-wis-1933.