Wadley v. Ward

137 S.W. 808, 99 Ark. 212, 1911 Ark. LEXIS 222
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 15, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 137 S.W. 808 (Wadley v. Ward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wadley v. Ward, 137 S.W. 808, 99 Ark. 212, 1911 Ark. LEXIS 222 (Ark. 1911).

Opinion

Frauenthae, J.

The question involved in this case is to determine the rights and priority of two mortgagees under foreclosure proceedings instituted by them to have satisfaction of their debts under the respective mortgages executed to them on the same land by the same mortgagor.

On August 30, 1900, D. G. McBride, the mortgagor, executed to appellee'his note for $225, due November 1, 1901, and on the same day, in order to secure the payment thereof, executed to him a mortgage on said land, which was duly recorded on the second day of November, 1900. On this note McBride made the following payments to appellee, who dully indorsed a memorandum thereof on the record where said mortgage was recorded at the time of each payment, which was duly attested and dated by the clerk, towit: on October 28, 1903, the sum of $10.48; and on September 29, 1908, the sum of $10.

On March 25, 1901, McBride executed to appellee a second note for $69.40, due November 1, 1901, and to secure the payment thereof executed to appellee a second mortgage on the same day on said land, which was duly recorded on the 27th day of March, 1901. On this second note McBride made the following payment to appellee, who duly indorsed a memorandum thereof on the record, which was duly attested and dated towit: on October 23, 1906, the sum of $10.

On March 31, 1906, said McBride executed to appellant his note for $300, due November 1, 1907, and to secure same executed a mortgage to him on said land, which was duly recorded on November 7, 1906. The actions to foreclose the mortgages were instituted on June 25, 1909, and McBride, who was made a party to the foreclosure proceedings, made no defense to a recovery by either mortgagee; but the appellant pleaded that the said notes which had been executed by him to the appellee were barred by the statute of limitations as against the appellant and his mortgage, and on this account that the lien of his mortgage was prior and superior to that of the mortgages of appellee.

The lower court found that the notes and mortgages which had ibeen executed to appellee by said McBride were not barred by the statute of limitations, and declared that the lien thereof on said land was prior and superior to that acquired by appellant ■by virtue of his mortgage, and entered a decree accordingly.

It is conceded by counsel for appellant upon this appeal that the note and mortgage executed by McBride to appellee on March 25, 1901, for $69.40, are not barred, and that the lien acquired u.pon the land for payment of said note is prior and superior to appellant’s mortgage. But it is contended that the note and mortgage executed to appellee by McBride on August 30, 1900, for $225, is not prior or superior to the mortgage of appellant, for the reason that the payment of September 29, 1908, was made after the execution and record of the mortgage by McBride to appellant, and that after the execution of such subsequent mortgage McBride did not have the power to toll the statute in favor of appellee’s mortgage or to keep alive appellee’s debt as against appellant’s rights and mortgage.

It is well settled that, as against the debtor, partial payments made by him to his creditor will stop the running of the statute of limitations and mark the time from which the statute then begins to run; and the general rule is that the partial payment of a debt, which will prevent the statute of limitations from running against it, will also prevent the statute from running against the remedy on the security. Chase v. Carney, 60 Ark. 491; Less v. Arndt, 68 Ark. 399; McAbee v. Wiley, 92 Ark. 245; Clift v. Williams, 105 Ky. 559. The statute of limitation that is applicable to a debt evidenced by a note is five years. Kirby’s Digest, § 5069.

Whether or not a mortgagor can keep alive and continue the lien of a prior mortgage after he has conveyed the premises or mortgaged them to a third person has been differently decided by the courts of different jurisdictions. In some courts it has been held that the mortgage is only an incident of the debt, and that the mortgagee is not required to learn or inquire what disposition the mortgagor has made of the equity of redemption when payments are made to him from time to time by the mortgagor. By these courts it is held that all subsequent purchasers and mortgagees have notice of the existence of such prior mortgage by virtue of the record thereof, and they should also take notice of the usual .course in business of making partial payments thereon, and of the legal effect thereof, and that until the debt is barred by the statute of limitations the mortgage is effective against ali third persons in the same manner as it is against the mortgagor. Hughes v. Edwards, 9 Wheat. 488; Murdock v. Waterman, 145 N. Y. 55.

By other courts it has been held that, as against the subsequent purchaser or incumbrancer, the mortgagor has no power to prolong the time of the payment of the prior mortgage debt or to prevent the running of the statute of limitations against the prior mortgage after the execution of the subsequent deed or mortgage, Lord v. Morris, 18 Cal. 482; George v. Butler, 57 L. R. A. 396; 2 Jones on Mortgages, § 1207.

But, prior to the enactment of section 5399 °f Kirby’s Digest, which was passed in 1889, this court held that seven years’ continuous adverse possession was necessary in order to bar an action to foreclose a mortgage upon real property, and that such continuous adverse possession for seven years was necessary in order to make available the plea of the statute of limitations, whether made by the mortgagor himself or by a subsequent grantee or mortgagee. Ringo v. Woodruff, 43 Ark. 469; Whittington v. Flint, 43 Ark. 504.

In the case of Whittington v. Flint, supra, it was held that “possession of the mortgagor or his privies, including his grantees, with notice, will not be adverse nor bar an action by the mortgagee for foreclosure or for possession of the land unless there has been an open and explicit disavowal and disclaimer of holding under the mortgagee’s title and assertion of title'in the holder brought home to the mortgagee,” and that such adverse possession must continue for seven years to bar an action for the foreclosure of the mortgage. The cases of Mayo v. Cartwright, 30 Ark. 407, and Benedict v. Griffith, 92 Ark. 195, which are cited by counsel for appellant, are not in conflict with this ruling. In the latter cases the subsequent grantees under the mortgagor or vendee pleaded that the right to foreclose the incumbrances was barred by adverse possession, and it was only by proof of such adverse possession that such pleas were sustained.

In s-peaking of the case of Mayo v. Cartwright, supra, Mr. Justice Battle, who also delivered the opinion in the case of Benedict v. Griffith, supra, said in the case of Ringo v. Woodruff, supra: “The only questions of limitation decided in the case were, did the war suspend the statute of limitations ? and, if not, did the payments made by Washington arrest the statute as to Cartwright? There was no occasion for the court to pass upon any others; as it appears that the defendants in that case admitted the possession of Cartwright to be adverse.”

And in the case of Whittington v. Flint, supra, the court, in speaking of the case of Mayo v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Keota Mills & Elevator v. Gamble
2010 OK 12 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2010)
Buckner State Bank v. Stager
115 S.W.2d 1076 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1938)
Connelly v. Hoffman
42 S.W.2d 985 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 S.W. 808, 99 Ark. 212, 1911 Ark. LEXIS 222, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wadley-v-ward-ark-1911.