Warford v. Sullivan

46 N.E. 27, 147 Ind. 14, 1897 Ind. LEXIS 3
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 5, 1897
DocketNo. 18,104
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 46 N.E. 27 (Warford v. Sullivan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warford v. Sullivan, 46 N.E. 27, 147 Ind. 14, 1897 Ind. LEXIS 3 (Ind. 1897).

Opinion

McCabe, J.

The appellant sued the appellees to foreclose a mortgage executed to the appellee, Huston, to indemnify him as surety on two promissory notes of |5,000.00 each, executed to appellant by appellee, Sullivan and wife, and Mackey as principals, and said Huston as surety, containing also a covenant to pay said notes to appellant, Warford.

The only controversy in this case on this appeal is between the appellant and one of the appellees, the First National Bank of Evansville, Indiana, over that part of the decree rendered upon the cross-complaint filed by said bank.

.That cross-complaint sought and obtained a decree declaring said bank the holder of a superior lien to that of . the appellant by reason of said bank having become a redemptioner of 400 acres of the land embraced in the appellant’s mortgage.

The errors assigned call in question the action of the trial court in overruling appellant’s motion -for a new trial of the issues between said bank and appel[16]*16lant, in decreeing that the lien of the judgment of said bank was prior and superior to the lien of the appellant’s mortgage on the real estate described in the decree, and in decreeing a sale of said real estate on a venditioni exponas by said appellee, and directing that from such sale said appellee should be first paid before appellant should receive anything on said mortgage, and questioning the sufficiency of the facts stated in the cross-complaint of said appellee bank.

The first and last assignment present the same question. There is no question made that the facts stated in the cross-complaint were not proven. If the cross-complaint stated facts sufficient, such facts having been proven, the motion for a new trial was properly overruled and the proper decree was rendered.

The controversy then is simply a question of law. That question depends upon the proper construction of the statute of redemptions of 1881. The facts disclosed by the cross-complaint and evidence are, that on January 6, 1887, the owners of the land in controversy, situate in Posey county, to-wit: Edward T. Sullivan, Margaret R. Sullivan, his wife, and David J. Mackey, and Carrie S. Mackey, his wife, executed a mortgage to the Equitable Trust Company on a part of the land described in the complaint; that said mortgage was given for the unpaid balance of the purchase money of said land, which had on said day been conveyed by said company to said Margaret R. Sullivan and David J. Mackey; that afterwards, the mortgage debt falling due on November 2, 1893, said company brought suit in the Posey Circuit Court against the mortgagors for the foreclosure thereof, and on November 20, 1893, recovered judgment and decree in said court foreclosing said mortgage in the sum of $2,847.40; that said land was, on proper process, duly [17]*17sold by the sheriff of said county, on said decree, to Parke & Welborn for $3,054.23, to. whom said sheriff issued a certificate of purchase in due form; that on December 8, 1894, one Nettleton recovered judgment in the same court against said Sullivans and David J. Mackey for $4,369.46, and on the same day the appellee, said First National Bank, recovered a judgment in the same court against the same defendants for $10,722.50, both of which became liens on said real estate, junior to the first mortgage and decree mentioned; that afterwards said Nettleton duly assigned her judgment to one Reitz, and afterwards. he duly assigned it to said First National Bank; that afterwards, on July 19, 1895, said First National Bank still being the owner and holder of said two judgments, and claiming the right to redeem from said foreclosure sale as a judgment creditor by virtue of said two judgments, filed in the office of the clerk of the Posey Circuit Court an affidavit for the purpose of enabling it to make said redemption; that thereupon said bank paid to the clerk of said court $3,296.00, being the purchase money paid by said Parke & Welborn at .said sheriff’s sale, with interest thereon at eight per cent, per annum from date of sale; that the aforesaid certificate of purchase was duly assigned by said Parke & Welborn to the Peoples Savings Bank, and the same was afterwards duly assigned to said Huston by said savings bank, and by said Huston the same was assigned to one Gumberts; thatVf said Huston furnished the money for the purchase of the said certificate, and that all of said transfers were for his benefit; that said Gumberts, being the holder of said certificate, and at the instance and by the direction of said Huston accepted said redemption money; that no other redemption of said real estate [18]*18was ever made, either by the owners or any one else; that the mortgage described in the complaint was executed' after the suit by the Equitable Trust Company was commenced, and was not recorded until after the judgment and decree of foreclosure had been rendered.

The learned counsel for appellant say that the precise question involved in his appeal is this: “If A takes a mortgage on real estate on which there is a prior mortgage which is foreclosed after the date of A’s mortgage, but before it is recorded, in a suit to which A. is not a party, and if afterwards the land is sold by the sheriff under the foreclosure, can a. junior judgment creditor, whose judgments are liens, not only on the mortgaged premises, but on other lands of the judgment debtor, by paying the clerk, without the knowledge of A, the amount bid at the sheriff’s sale, effect a redemption of the property which will displace the lien of A’s mortgage and give priority over that lien to the junior judgment by virtue of which the redemption was made? Incidentally there is involved the question whether the affidavit filed by the appellees for the purpose of redeeming the property was sufficient.”

This being the precise question counsel present, they contending for the negative thereof, it will be useful to eliminate conditions or contingencies therefrom that are wholly immaterial. For instance, that A was not a party to the foreclosure suit. Parties who acquire liens pending suit to foreclose are as much bound by the decree as if made parties thereto. Boice v. Michigan, etc., Ins. Co., 114 Ind. 480; Randall v. Lower, 98 Ind. 255; Winslow v. Wallace, Rec., 116 Ind. 317.

Nor does it make any difference under the redemption law that the junior judgment is also a lien on [19]*19other lands of the judgment debtor. Nor is the precise question involved in this appeal, as the learned counsel supposes, whether a redemption of real estate by a junior judgment creditor will displace a lien of an unforeclosed mortgage and give priority over that lien to the junior judgment by virtue of which the redemption was made-. But, rather, the question presented is, can the holder of a junior unforeclosed mortgage, by lying still and permitting a judgment creditor, whose lien is not only junior to the oldest mortgage, but junior also to his own, redeem from a sale on the.oldest mortgage,, which is also the oldest lien, and then step in and get the benefit of such redemption, and treat the foreclosure sale on said first mortgage as having been vacated for his benefit by such redemption, and then foreclose his.

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Bluebook (online)
46 N.E. 27, 147 Ind. 14, 1897 Ind. LEXIS 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warford-v-sullivan-ind-1897.