Walther v. Ruark

143 N.W. 503, 161 Iowa 560
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 23, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 143 N.W. 503 (Walther v. Ruark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walther v. Ruark, 143 N.W. 503, 161 Iowa 560 (iowa 1913).

Opinion

Deemer', J.

September 2, 1911, Adrian Walther died intestate, seised of the west fractional half of section 16, township 67, in Davis county, Iowa. He had acquired this land by purchase in the year 1910, and to secure part of the purchase price he and his wife executed a mortgage upon the land to the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company to secure the sum of $8,500. As will hereafter be observed, this mortgage never became effective for want of delivery. At the same time they executed a trust deed upon the land to one Hotchkiss to secure the further sum of $3,500 and some other debts therein specified. After the acquisition of the property, husband and wife moved thereon and made a part thereof their homestead. This they were occupying at the time of the husband’s death. Surviving the husband were his widow, one of the plaintiffs herein, and six children, who are either plaintiffs or defendants. In her petition in this case, the widow elected to take her distributive share, and it is agreed that each of the children was entitled to an undivided one-ninth interest. The defendants pleaded that the land could not be equitably subdivided, and they asked for a sale thereof; admitted that the widow should not be charged with any part of the attorneys’ fees, and asked the appointment of a referee to report all incumbrances. The widow1 asked for a sale of the land, and that the mortgage liens thereon and to the proceeds thereof be adjudged a first lien upon the lands not homestead in character, and that her share in the land, to the extent of the homestead, be held secondarily liable. After hearing the proofs, the trial court fixed the shares of the respective parties, ordered a sale of all the property, because not subject to equitable division, decreed that the sale should be subject to the mortgages, and further decreed that:

In the distribution of the proceeds from the sale of said land, the proceeds from the homestead forty acres shall not be charged with the payments of any mortgage or mortgages upon said lands unless the proceeds from the balance of said land should prove insufficient to pay off or discharge said [562]*562mortgage or mortgages, in which case- the proceeds from the sale of the homestead forty acres shall only be used to pay any deficiency after exhausting the proceeds from the other land. It is further ordered and decreed that, in the payment of any mortgage or mortgages upon said land, the portion of the said widow’s share represented by the proceeds of the sale of the homestead shall not be charged therewith nor contribute in paying same; however, the excess received by said widow over the proceeds from the sale of the homesteacTslrall bear its proportionate shareAn-ku-rdmr^^ of said mortgage or mortgages. In the event said land is sold in one whoteTract, the appraisement shall form a basis upon which to determine the amount received for the homestead forty acres. When said referee has sold said land and received the purchase money therefor, he shall first pay the costs of this action, including the statutory attorneys’ fees to plaintiff’s attorneys; next he shall pay the mortgage if any as stated herein; next he shall pay the widow, Ida M. Walther, her share of the proceeds to be ascertained as provided herein; next he shall pay to the administrator of the estate of Adrian Walther a sufficient amount so when added to the property or proceeds thereof now in his hands as administrator will pay the just debts and expenses of administration of said estate. The balance in his hands shall be equally distributed to Oscar O. Walther, John R. Walther, Bertha Walter-Ruark, Leon J. Walther, Ralph A. Walther, and Adolph M. Walther. Any sale made of said land must be made subject to the approval of this court or one of its judges in vacation and reported for approval.

Objections were thereafter filed to that part of the decree quoted. These were overruled, and the appeal is from this order and also from the decree. It should also be stated that, in the pleading filed by the widow, she claimed the homestead character of a certain forty acres of the tract; that she was in possession and occupying the same; and she asked that her property be set off so as to include the homestead and further prayed: ‘ ‘. . . That in the event said land cannot be equitably divided into parts without loss or injury to the whole tract, in the distribution of the proceeds from the sale of said land, she be paid the proceeds from the sale of the [563]*563homestead with sufficient added thereto from the sale of other lands to make the proportion so paid her equal to one-third (Yz) of the entire proceeds, being her homestead and dower interest; and she prays that the proceeds from the sale of the homestead forty shall not be charged with the payment of any mortgage or mortgages upon said land; and she further prays that her interest in said land shall not be charged with the payment of any of the debts of deceased and for such other relief as is equitable in the premises and for general relief in equity.” Evidently the trial court granted this prayer, and the correctness of the ruling is challenged.

An amended abstract, filed by appellee, shows that no money was advanced on the $8,500 mortgage, and that the incumbrance was for $8,000 for a debt incurred after the homestead was created, and that all other debts and incumbrances, including the debt secured by the trust deed, were paid out of the personal property of the deceased.

The issue presented is a narrow one, and we must, in view of the record, eliminate the claim that the unsatisfied mortgage was given for the purchase money and was in existence before the homestead was acquired. Appellees’ amendment to the abstract is not challenged, and we must accept the statements therein as true. The only question remaining, then, is: Was the widow entitled to the decree which the trial court entered, making the homestead forty or the proceeds thereof secondarily liable for the incumbrance in which the wife joined? The statutes of the state afford a ready answer to this question.

Code, section 2976, reads as follows:

The homestead may be sold on execution for debts contracted prior to its acquisition, but in such case it shall not be sold except to supply any deficiency remaining after exhausting the other property of the debtor liable to execution. It may also be sold for debts created by written contract, executed >by the persons having the power to convey, and expressly stipulating that it is liable therefor, but then only for a [564]*564deficiency remaining after exhausting all other property pledged by the same contract for the payment of the debt.

Section 2985 provides that:

Upon, the death of either husband or wife, the survivor may continue to possess and occupy the whole homestead until it is otherwise disposed of according to law, but the setting off of the distributive share of the husband or wife in the real estate of the deceased shall be such a disposal of the homestead as is herein contemplated. The survivor may elect to retain the homestead for life in lieu of such share in the real estate of the deceased; but if there be no survivor, the homestead descends to the issue of either husband or wife according to the rules of descent, unless otherwise directed by will, and is to be held by such issue exempt from any antecedent debts of their parents or their own, except those of the owner thereof contracted prior to its acquisition.

Section 3367 reads:

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Related

Prudential Insurance Co. of America v. Westfall
260 N.W. 344 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
143 N.W. 503, 161 Iowa 560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walther-v-ruark-iowa-1913.