Western Loan & Savings Co. v. Smith

113 P. 475, 42 Mont. 442, 1911 Mont. LEXIS 121
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 16, 1911
DocketNo. 2,904
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 113 P. 475 (Western Loan & Savings Co. v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Western Loan & Savings Co. v. Smith, 113 P. 475, 42 Mont. 442, 1911 Mont. LEXIS 121 (Mo. 1911).

Opinion

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BRANTLY

delivered the opinion of the court.

Action to foreclose a mortgage. The amended complaint alleges, in substance: (1) That the plaintiff is a building and loan association, incorporated under the laws of the state of Utah, and licensed to do business in Montana. (2) That on June 4, 1902, the defendants executed and delivered to it their promissory note, as follows:

“First Mortgage Note.

“$3,780.00. Anaconda, Mont., June 4, 1902.

“For value received, we promise to pay to the Western Loan & Savings Company, a corporation, of Salt Lake City, Utah, the sum of three thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars, in payments as follows: Thirty-six and no/100 ($36.00) dollars on the 16th day of each and every month, commencing with the month of June, 1902, until 105 payments shall have been made. Payable at the Utah Commercial & Savings Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Maggie J. Smith.

“Kenneth D. Smith.”

[444]*444(3) That, to secure payment thereof according to its terms, they executed a mortgage upon certain land described therein, situated in Deer Lodge county, Montana, which was thereafter duly recorded. (4) That the defendants, beginning with June 9, 1902, made payment of twenty-eight monthly installments as stipulated in the note and mortgage; the last being made on September 28, 1904. (5) That, at the time the note and mortgage were executed and delivered, the defendants secured a policy of insurance upon the buildings situated upon the land described in the mortgage,' for the sum of $1,400, payable to plaintiff; that the buildings were destroyed by fire during the year 1904, and that the full amount of the policy was paid to the plaintiff on December 22, 1904. (6) That no installments or other sums have been paid upon the promissory note, and that plaintiff offers to allow a discount, at the rate of eight per cent per annum, for the time any installments discharged by the sum of $1,400 credited upon the note at the time it was received, was made before maturity. (7) That this sum was applied: First, to the payment of the installments then due for the months of October, November, and December, 1904; and, second, to the payment of the installments thereafter to fall due. That there were thus paid installments from October, 1904, up to and including November, 1907, thirty-five in all, and $32 upon the installment to mature in December, 1907. And that in addition to these credits the defendants were allowed a discount at the rate of eight per cent per annum upon all the thirty-five installments the payments of which were thus accelerated, for the average time to elapse before their maturity, amounting to $145.80. (8) That, except these payments, the whole of the said note, with interest upon the monthly installments from the time they severally matured, is due and unpaid. (9) That the sum of $200 is a reasonable attorney’s fee to allow for the foreclosure of the mortgage. (10) That the plaintiff, because of the failure-of defendants to make payment of other installments as they matured, has elected, under a stipulation of the mortgage, to-treat all the remaining installments as immediately due and. [445]*445payable. (11) That the plaintiff is now the owner and holder of the note and mortgage. (12) That the laws of Utah contain no restriction or limitation upon the power of building and loan associations to cancel loans or to release securities, nor any provision regulating the rights of the members to pay off and discharge loans obtained by them from the association. Judgment is demanded for a balance of $1,226.20, the sum of the unpaid installments with interest at the rate of eight per cent per annum upon each of them, or any part of any one of them remaining unpaid, until the date of judgment, and that the land be sold to satisfy it, together with costs including attorney’s fees.

The answer is prolix and confused in its statements. It may be epitomized as follows: It admits the execution of the note and mortgage; that the payments were made, as alleged, of all installments falling due up to and including the one paid September 28, 1904,; and that the payment of $1,400 was made on December 22, 1904. All other allegations are denied generally or specially. It is then alleged as ground for affirmative relief: (1) That if the plaintiff is a building and loan association organized and existing under the laws of Utah and licensed to do business in Montana, as alleged in the complaint, it cannot recover of the defendants any greater sum than $22.62, by reason of the facts herein alleged. (2) That the defendants are the owners in fee of the land described in the mortgage. (3) That on or about June 4, 1902, the defendants executed and delivered the note and mortgage set out in the complaint, under the following conditions: That the defendants then borrowed of plaintiff the sum of $2,000; that this sum was to bear interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum until paid; and that this sum of $2,000 is the same as that mentioned in the mortgage referred to in the complaint. (4) That the note set out in the complaint was executed for the sum of $2,000, and interest calculated thereon to the amount of $1,780, making in all $3,780; the sum of $1,780 being intended as interest, at ten per cent per annum, for the time for which the note was to run. That, before the note and mortgage were executed and delivered, it was agreed [446]*446by the parties that the principal sum should bear interest at the rate of ten per cent per mnurn only, and that when at any timo any part of- the principal sum should be paid, whether in any installment or otherwise, the interest on such amounts paid should cease. That the plaintiff, when it presented the note and mortgage for signature, falsely and fraudulently represented to the defendants that they stipulated only for interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum for the period for which the note was to run; whereas, they included interest, if the payments were made as therein provided, at the rate of twenty per cent per annum. That defendants signed and executed the note and mortgage believing this representation to be true; whereas, it was false. That all premiums due to plaintiff from the defendants had been paid for more than one year when the payment of the sum of $1,400 was made, and that this payment was by agreement between the parties to be applied upon the balance of the principal sum of $2,000 then remaining due, and in full satisfaction of it, except the sum of $27.62. (5) That the defendants had paid all the monthly installments provided for, up to and including the one paid on September 28, 1904, which had been applied upon the principal and interest then due. That the payments made up to and including the one then made had fully discharged all interest then due and part of the principal, leaving as a balance of the principal the sum of $1,426.78. That thereafter, on December 22, the defendants paid to the plaintiff the sum of $1,400, with the express understanding that it was to be applied upon the interest then due and then upon the principal, and was so accepted by the plaintiff. That, the balance of the $2,000 thus left unpaid was the sum of $27.62, and no more. (6) That on or about December 22, 1904, the defendants "tendered to plaintiff $66.77 in full satisfaction of said balance, and demanded that the note and mortgage be canceled, but that the tender was rejected and the cancellation refused.

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Bluebook (online)
113 P. 475, 42 Mont. 442, 1911 Mont. LEXIS 121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/western-loan-savings-co-v-smith-mont-1911.