Volentine v. Hurd

21 F. 749, 22 Blatchf. 489, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2447
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedOctober 7, 1884
StatusPublished

This text of 21 F. 749 (Volentine v. Hurd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Volentine v. Hurd, 21 F. 749, 22 Blatchf. 489, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2447 (uscirct 1884).

Opinion

Wheeler, J.

This suit is brought to foreclose a mortgage of $15,000 on the homestead farm of the defendant Reuben T. Hurd, situated in Arlington, Vermont, against his attaching creditors as well as against him. The mortgage was executed on tho twenty-first clay of July, 1880, at Arlington, in the absence of the orator, and was recorded in the land records of Arlington, as required by the laws of the state, on the ninth da.y of August following. The consideration was advance 1, $5,000 on the first and $10,000 on the eighth days of Oc[750]*750tober following, by the orator to a brother of the mortgagor, at Aurora, Illinois, where the orator resides. The mortgagor makes no defense; the creditors defend upon the ground that the mortgage is fraudulent and void as to them.

The mortgagor was, at the time of the execution of the mortgage, hopelessly and desperately insolvent, and this, became fully known to the orator when he became informed of the mortgage. The mortgagor started a composition with his creditors, by deed dated July 27, 1880, in which the creditors, signing and sealing, agreed to “accept, receive, and take of and from the said Eeuben T. Hurd, his executors and administrators, for each and every dollar of our respective claims and demands against said Eeuben T. Hurd, the sum of twenty-five cents, in full satisfaction, payment, and discharge of all and every our debts, claims, and demands; such composition to be paid to us severally and respectively within four months from the date of these presents.” And they further therein agreed that he might, “from time to time, and at all times hereafter, within the said term of four months from the date hereof, assign, sell, or dispose of his property, stock, and effects,” “for and towards the payment and satisfaction of the composition of the debts, claims, or demands of us and every of us.”

There was no provision that all the creditors should sign. The orator was a creditor before the mortgage, and signed and became fully aware of the composition deeds. The defendant the Batten-kill National Bank, for a consideration paid, agreed to assign its claim to the brother of the mortgagor for the further consideration of 25 cents on the dollar to be paid, in order that the claim might be brought within the terms of the composition. The defendant Hawley had an attachment on the farm prior to the mortgage, the ad damnum in the writ and amount directed by the writ to be attached being $1,500. For a consideration agreed to be paid, he signed the composition deed, and signed a writing stating that he released and discharged the liens by the attachment, and discontinued the suit as to Hurd, and delivered it to him. The other defendants did not become parties to the composition. The 25 per cent, was not paid to the Battenkill Bank nor to Hawley. The mortgagor gave up carrying through the composition, and with the money received from the orator fled to Canada without paying his creditors any considerable part of it. At the time when the money was advanced by the orator upon this mortgage, it covered all the próperty within the reach of the mortgagor’s creditors at that time, and the orator was fully aware of this fact. That thé loan was negotiated by the mortgagor for the purpose of obtaining money to pay the 25 per cent, on the composition, well enough appears, and this purpose was understood by the orator. That the mortgagor intended, when he received the money, to take it beyond the reach of his creditors if the composition failed, also is apparent. There is no evidence that the orator knew of this purpose, [751]*751but he was fully aware that placing the money in his hands without safeguard would enable him to avoid his creditors if he would.

The case stands differently as between those who were parties to the composition agreement and those who were not. And as to this the Battenkill Bank was in reality, although not nominally, such a party. It brought itself within the scope and effect of the agreement. It is not considered that it would be necessary that all the creditors should become parties to the composition to make it binding. In Cobleigh v. Pierce, 32 Vt. 789, there was an express provision that all should sign to make the agreement valid. In Chase v. Bailey, 49 Vt. 71, the provisions were such for dividing the property of the debtor pro rata among his creditors that it could not be carried out unless all should sign. Not so here; the agreement of each creditor is several. The consent of more than one creditor might be necessary for a consideration where the contract is simple and a consideration required. But this contract is under seal, which imports a consideration, and would bind Hawley, who sealed it with his seal; and the Battenkill Bank received a consideration for what it entered into, and, besides, the procuring the agreement of the others who did sign, would probably be a sufficient consideration of itself for that undertaking.

The mortgage was fully accomplished within the four months by being made, accepted, and recorded, and the money advanced. The mortgagor had the right to dispose of his property for the payment of the 25 per cent, on the debts at any time within the four months. Any party to the compromise had the full right to purchase the property or take lien upon it during that time for that purpose, but impliedly, by the terms of the agreement, not for any other purpose. Had the mortgagor paid Hawley the 25 per cent,., on his claim, and the Batienkill Bank 25 per cent, on its claim, within the four months, they would have had no just ground to complain against the mortgage. If they were defrauded by it at all, it was only as to the 25 per cent. The orator knew that by the effect of the agreement the mortgagor had no right to dispose of his property, by mortgage or otherwise, except “for and towards the payment and satisfaction of the composition.” He had no right as to them to loan money on a mortgage to the debtor generally during that time. The property was expressly charged with the trust, as between the parties to the agreement, of paying the 25 per cent. The orator violated the trust when he loaned the money generally on the mortgage without seeing to it that the 25 per cent, was paid. Tie, at least, took the risk of seeing that the money went for that purpose; and, as it went from him into other channels without the consent of Hawley or the bank, he is responsible, and not entitled to a decree of foreclosure as against them, without providing for the payment of the 25 per cent, of their claims, with interest from November 27,1880, before which day that amount should have been paid.

[752]*752By the statutes of Vermont the orator, in a hill to foreclose a mortgage, may join as a defendant any subsequent attaching creditor of the premises sought to be foreclosed. Bev. Laws Vt. § 762. Creditors who did not become parties to the composition, and have attached the premises subsequently to the mortgage, are made defendants under this statute. Their rights are to be determined.

The mortgagor’s liabilities were from $125,000 to $150,000, and his assets were only about $50,000. The mortgage was executed at Arlington while the orator was at Aurora, and apparently without his knowledge. The effect of it was to place substantially all of the attachable property of the mortgagor in Vermont under its cover. From the course and proceedings of the mortgagor, the obvious purpose of it was to induce or compel his creditors to accept of the composition, and to provide means for the payment of the percentage if they should accept.

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Related

Edgell v. Lowell
4 Vt. 405 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1832)
Root v. Reynolds
32 Vt. 139 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1859)
Church v. Chapin
35 Vt. 223 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1862)
Chase v. Bailey & Co.
49 Vt. 71 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1876)
Prout v. Vaughn
52 Vt. 451 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1880)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
21 F. 749, 22 Blatchf. 489, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/volentine-v-hurd-uscirct-1884.