Wood v. McFerrin

61 Tenn. 493
Tennessee Supreme Court·Decided December 15, 1873·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Nicholson, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

[494] This bill is filed by the complainant as stayor of two judgments, one in favor of Martin Pedle, Ham-brock & Co., against the firm of Carmichael & St.John, recovered about the 14th of November, 1860, for $497 79; the other by Payne & Cohart, of date 29th of September, 1860, for $280. These judgments were recovered before a Justice of the Peace for Cannon county, and stayed by complainant. It is charged in the bill, as one of the leading grounds for the relief sought, that in November, 1860, Carmichael & St. John -executed a deed of trust, by which they conveyed a large amount of assets, consisting of their stock of merchandise, of the value of between $6,000 and $7,000, together with a large amount of debts, to one Ed. J. Wood, in trust, to sue and collect, and to appropriate proceeds of the trust property and assets to the payment of the large list of debts specified, in the order of preference required in said deed, among which debts are included the two judgments above referred to, ,they being part of what is known in the deed as preferred debts. It is claimed in the bill, that as this trust was not to be closed, by its terms, until January, 1862, that it amounts to such a contract for delay, after acceptance by the beneficiaries, as should discharge the complainant as stayor, and that he is, in fact, so discharged. The deed of trust is made part of the bill, as an exhibit. On looking to the terms of this deed of trust, it appears that certain notes and judgments, among them the judgment in this case, were to be paid first, and that the trustee was to sell' the goods and collect the assets, and first appropriate the money [495] to pay their preferred debts, after reserving expenses of executing the trust, and if all the indebtedness, both preferred and second class claims, were not paid by the 1st of January, 1862, then the balance of the goods ■ on hand were to be sold by the trustee, as he thought most advantageous to all the parties concerned, and pay the indebtedness remaining.

It is clear, there is no express contract for delay in the deed, on the contrary, the inference is very fair from the face of the deed, and the fact that the debts of the firm assigned amounted to about $13,000, which are to be collected by the trustee; that it was supposed and contemplated that the preferred debts, at any rate, would be discharged in a less time than the period referred to for finally closing the trust; in fact, that they would be discharged as fast as the debts could be realized.

There being no contract for delay, but only such a security as we have stated above, the question is, whether taking this security, under the circumstances, released the stayor. "We think it did not. The rule is thus laid down in Am. Lead, cases, 5 Ed., 1871, p. 444: Taking a mortgage or bill of sale, conditioned for payment at a future day, is not a suspension of the debt, unless it is expressly so agreed. Prima facie, such an instrument is an additional or collateral security, and leaves the existing remedies of the creditor against both principal and surety intact. See United States v. Hodge, 6 How., 79. In the case of Lea v. Dozier, 10 Hum., 451, this principle is substantially adopted by our own Court, it being held, in that case, that [496] while there was no contract, in express terms, to delay for the six months the deed of trust had to run, yet such a contract was necessarily implied from the language of the instrument, ^nd the Court finding, such a contract a binding agreement for delay, held the surety released. Finding no such contract expressed in terms, nor necessarily implied in the language of the deed of trust in this case, we hold that there can be no release of the surety by reason of the making of the deed of trust by the principals, nor its acceptance by the beneficiaries, even if such acceptance should be. clearly made out. ' This deed neither suspends the remedy of the creditor to enforce his debt, nor works any injury, in fact, to the surety, and on one of these grounds we believe all the cases on this subject agree. On the contrary, the taking the collateral security of the trust deed was an advantage to the security, as it, if properly administered, tended to his relief by the specific appropriation of a fund to its payment, and that in preference to other creditors, and in addition, the stayor might, at the end of the stay, have paid the debt, had judgment by motion against the principals, and been entitled for his indemnity, to be substituted to the rights of the creditors under the trust deed. The complainant must fail of relief on this ground.

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Wood v. McFerrin, 61 Tenn. 493 (Tenn. 1873).

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