Washington Trust Co. v. Morse Iron Works & Dry Dock Co.

79 N.E. 1022, 187 N.Y. 307, 25 Bedell 307, 1907 N.Y. LEXIS 780
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 29, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 79 N.E. 1022 (Washington Trust Co. v. Morse Iron Works & Dry Dock Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Washington Trust Co. v. Morse Iron Works & Dry Dock Co., 79 N.E. 1022, 187 N.Y. 307, 25 Bedell 307, 1907 N.Y. LEXIS 780 (N.Y. 1907).

Opinion

Haight, J.

The defendant, the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company; hereinafter called the Morse Iron Works Company, executed and delivered a mortgage on all of its *310 property and appurtenances then possessed and to be thereafter acquired to the plaintiff, as trustee, to secure the payment of its bonds, amounting in the aggregate to $450,000. The mortgage covered a certain piece of real estate therein described, with water rights and dry dock connected therewith., Subsequently the Morse Iron Works Company entered into' a contract with the Prindle Engineering Company, hereinafter called the Prindle Company, under which that company constructed a flooding and pumping plant in the Morse Iron Works Company’s dry dock, for which the Prindle Company was to be paid the sum of $60,000, at times specified, but containing a provision to the effect that the- title of the flooding and pumping plant was to remain in the Prindle Company until final payment. Payments were made upon this contract from time to time amounting to the sum of $33,847.86, leaving due thereon the sum of $26,162.14. In February, 1903, the Morse Iron Works Company and the Prindle Company entered into a supplemental agreement in writing, whereby the Morse Iron Works. Company gave to the Prindle Company three promissory notes, each for $8,717.38, payable respectively in November, 1903, February, 1904, and August, 1904, but the giving and acceptance of these notes was pot to be regarded as payment, and if default was made in the payment of any one of the notes the whole outstanding balance should immediately become due and payable, and until the payment of all of the three notes the title to the flooding and pumping plant should remain in the Prindle Company as provided in the original agreement. Subsequently, default was made by the Morse Iron Works Company in the payment of the principal and interest upon its bonds and also in the payment of the notes that it had given to the Prindle Company. Thereupon the plaintiff, as trustee under the mortgage, commenced this action for the foreclosure of the same, not making the Prindle Company a party to the action, but subsequently, upon the application of the Prindle Company, it was permitted to intervene arid serve an answer setting up the contract under which it had con *311 structed the flooding and pumping plant and asking that it be adjudged to be the owner of the plant free and clear of the mortgage and that it be excepted from any sale that should be decreed of the premises and property of the Horse Iron Works Company, or in the alternative that the Prindle Company be first paid the amount owing to it out of the proceeds of the sale. There was an issue raised as to the amount that remained unpaid upon the Prindle Company’s contract and other issues with reference to the bonded indebtedness, which were disposed of upon the trial, which resulted in a judgment of foreclosure and sale to pay the bonded indebtedness in which the sale was directed to include the plant of the Prindle Company, and that that company, after the payment of costs? should be first paid the amount due and owing to it as represented by the promissory notes heretofore referred to. In the meantime proceedings in bankruptcy had been instituted, ana pending an appeal from the judgment entered in the foreclosure action the defendant Petze, as trustee in bankruptcy, sold all of the interest of the Horse Iron Works Company in the mortgaged property to one John P. Cadigan, who, shortly thereafter, assigned the property so purchased by him to the Horse Dry Dock and Repair Company, a new corporation organized to take over the property of the bankrupt, consisting chiefly of the creditors of the old corporation, Avho thereupon paid off the mortgaged indebtedness to the trustee and the mortgage was thereupon discharged as of record, but they did not pay the balance due upon the Prindle Company’s contract. Subsequently, the judgment entered upon the foreclosure of the mortgage was affirmed in the Appellate Division and an appeal was then taken to this court. Thereafter a motion was made on behalf of the trustee in bankruptcy and the creditors ivho had taken over the property under the bankruptcy sale to vacate the judgment in the foreclosure action, or for an order bringing in the Horse Dry Dock Company, the new corporation, as a defendant in the action. The Special Term denied the motion to vacate the judgment and the motion to bring in the new corporation *312 as a party except for the purposes of the motion, but directed that the sale of the premises under the foreclosure decree be stayed and forbidden. Thereupon the Prindle Company appealed to the Appellate Division, which court reversed the order of the Special Term in so far as it stayed the Prindle Company from proceeding with the sale of the premises for the purpose of paying the amount du.e to it under the terms of the judgment.

With reference to the appeal from the judgment there "is but little open for review in this court. The issue raised as to the amount remaining unpaid upon the Prindle Company’s contract was a question of fact determined by the trial court, and that question has been finally disposed of by the unanimous affirmance of the Appellate Division. It is conceded on behalf of the Prindle Company that upwards of $33,000 had been paid upon their flooding and pumping contract, and, therefore, the Morse Iron Works Company had acquired an equity in the property to that extent, which passed to the mortgagee as after-acquired property. The Prindle Company, in its answer, had asked that its property should not be included in the sale, or, in case it should be, that it should first be paid out of the proceeds of such sale. It, therefore, - devolved upon the trustee prosecuting the action to determine as to whether it would insist upon including the Prindle plant in the sale or have it omitted therefrom. It appears as a fact found in the case that the flooding and pumping plant was necessary for the operation of the dry dock, and it was, therefore, apparently determined that it would be for the best interests of the creditors to have the pumping plant sold in connection with the dry dock, for the reason that it could continue its operation as such and would probably bring a greater sum on account thereof. We, therefore, are of the opinion that the creditors have no valid complaint to make as to the form of the judgment, and that so far as they are concerned the appeal therefrom should be affirmed.

With reference to the appeal from the order, in which that of the Special Term has been in part reversed, we differ with *313 tiie conclusion readied by the Appellate Division. The Prindle Company under their contract had no interest in or lien upon the mortgaged premises. It retained title to its own plant which it had constructed until it was paid for in full. The Prindle Company was not a necessary party to the foreclosure action, nor was it made a party by the action of the trustee. It was only through its own intervention that it was permitted to come into the litigation, but we are unable to see how by such intervention it was able to acquire any lien upon or interest in the mortgaged property that it-did not theretofore possess. It held title to its own plant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 N.E. 1022, 187 N.Y. 307, 25 Bedell 307, 1907 N.Y. LEXIS 780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/washington-trust-co-v-morse-iron-works-dry-dock-co-ny-1907.