Owings Lumber Co. v. Marlowe
Owings Lumber Co. v. Marlowe
Opinion of the Court
It has been held in this state, in line with the general current of authority, that:
“Where the maker of a promissory note becomes the proprietor of it in the regular course of trade (after it had been in circulation), it is extinguished ipso facto.” Wallace v. Br. Bk. Mobile, 1 Ala. 565.
Respondents’ contention, on the other hand,' is that the question is whether complainant has sufficient security for her $4,-000 note from Mrs. Jones, apart from the timber on the Owings lands; and, if so, then there is no ground for equitable intervention by injunction. If complainant’s contention is correct, the pleadings and evidence fully support the chancellor’s ruling. If, on the •other hand, respondents’ contention is correct, we think the chancellor’s action was erroneous, since on the. undisputed evidence complainant has as security for a $4,000 debt, with interest, lands worth about $12,000, without the timber here sought to be preserved.
But complainant does not seek to foreclose her own mortgage from Mrs. Jones. On the contrary, she is proceeding to foreclose only the Owings mortgage to Mrs. Jones, and in so doing she is in equity but the agent of Mrs. Jones, exercises the rights of Mrs. Jones, and must «account to her for the proceeds of this property. In this aspect of the case complainant succeeds to and is entitled to enforce the equitable rights of Mrs. Jones, exactly the same as if Mrs. Jones were here suing in her own person.
We conclude, therefore, that complainant is, upon the showings submitted to the chancellor, entitled to the retention of the writ of injunction pending the final decree, under the principles declated in Moses v. Johnson, 88 Ala. 517, 7 South. 146, 16 Am. St. Rep. 58.
“If the threatened injury is irreparable in its nature, as in the cutting of timber’, and so impairs the mortgage security as to render it inadequate, the mortgagee may have an injunction without averring or proving the insolvency of the mortgagor.” 1 High on Injunctions (4th Ed.) § 480.
Indeed, why should the law allow a mortgagee to be stripped of the security upon which he has relied, and remitted to a purely personal remedy against the mortgagor? The wrong- is .not in merely rendering the mortgage debt uncollectible, but in rendering it insecure, and impairing, if not destroying, its commercial value.
Let the decree be affirmed.’
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- OWINGS LUMBER CO. Et Al. v. MARLOWE
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published