Corcoran v. Merle
Corcoran v. Merle
Opinion of the Court
In this cause, which is an action to redeem certain lands from a mortgage, plaintiffs were, on motion of defendants, non-suited. The mortgage from which plaintiffs claim to redeem was executed by Daniel Jones to Ann Reynolds, on the 12th day of December, 1878, to secure an indebtedness of Jones to Ann Reynolds amounting to the sum of $6,000, evidenced by Jones’ note bearing date on the day last named, with interest, etc. Plaintiffs aver, with a detail of explanatory circumstances, that Jones held the property for them, and as their trustee, and that defendant Merle purchased from Jones with full notice of their rights. They offer to pay the amount found to be due on the mortgage, after crediting the rents and profits received by Merle and Jones, who have been in possession for some time, during which they received rents from the property mortgaged. The defense of Merle, who is really the only defendant, is that he is a purchaser from Jones for a valuable consideration, without notice of any right of plaintiffs, or of either of them.
The facts shown in evidence are as follows:—
On the 12th of July, 1870, the plaintiff and his then wife, Mary, who were then the owners of the land involved in this litigation, borrowed of the Savings and Loan Society $4,000, and to secure the loan and future advances not to exceed $6,000, they on the same day executed a deed of trust to B. D. Dean and E. W. Burr, by the terms of which they granted and conveyed this land to the trustees in joint tenancy, and all the estate they then had or might in any way acquire to it. The deed of trust is in form such as is generally used by the society mentioned above. This deed was recorded July 16, 1870. In 1875, Mary Corcoran, above mentioned, died, leaving the plaintiff John her sole heir. In 1876, John married the plaintiff
Just before the expiry of six months from the sale just mentioned to Raisch, the plaintiff John Corcoran entered into a negotiation with D. M. Seaton and Charles E. Pearson for the sale to them of the land encumbered as above set forth. It was agreed between John Corcoran, of the one part, and Seaton and Pearson, of the other, that the latter should pay off the indebtedness to the Savings and Loan Society, and the street assessment encumbrance, and pay John Corcoran $2,500 in addition. An attorney was employed to prepare a deed of the property, by which John Corcoran should, on the above payments being made ■ by Seaton and Pearson, convey to them the above-mentioned land. The deed was drawn up and ready for signature, when, on the last day on which there could be a redemption from Raiseh’s judgment, one Daniel Jones, as a judgment creditor, filed a notice of redemption from the aforesaid sale under the Raisch judgment. Jones had, or claimed to have, a right to redeem on a judgment before that time recovered in the Municipal Court of Appeals. John Corcoran then refused to sign the deed. It appears that Jones was an instrument of T. P. Riordan and B. J. Shay, who put him in the position to redeem for them from the sale on the Raisch judgment. Shay and Riordan were using the name of Jones, who was a clerk in Shay’s office.
Such was the state of the title when the defendant Merle pur-i chased of Daniel Jones. The deed of conveyance from Jones to Merle, of the land involved in this suit, bears date of July 3,. 1879. Mei'le testified that before and at the time he paid the money to Jones for the property, and received the deed, he knew - nothing of the transactions between Shay, Riordan, and Corcoran,'or between Seaton and Pearson and Corcoran, or between Shay and Riordan and Seaton, or Pearson, or any of them, and there is no testimony contradicting this statement. The payment of the purchase money by Merle on the day of the execution of the deed is established by clear and uncontradicted evidence. We find nothing in the documentary evidence in the case to put Merle on inquiry as to these transactions. There was no legal title outstanding in Burr and Dean, trustees under the deed of July 12,1870, at the time Merle purchased. It had been got in on November 2, 1878, by a deed of release to the plaintiff John Corcoran and Mary Corcoran, and was recorded on the 29th of January, 1879, months before the date of the deed to Merle. As soon as the release above mentioned' was ■ made by Burr and Dean, on the 2d of November, 1878, it passed-at once by operation of the trust deed to Burr and Shotwell to. them, the grantees in the last trust deed; for it must be remembered that the deed last referred to conveyed to the trustees all the title which the grantors then had or might afterwards acquire..
We do not think it material that Dean was not made a party to the action brought by Eaisch. If in consequence of this, some portion of the title conveyed to Burr and Dean remained in Dean, we do not see why that interest could not be released to John Corcoran, which would pass as above stated to Burr and Shotwell. If he was not a necessary party to the suit of Eaisch, then the whole title passed to the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale on the Eaisch judgment, and the sheriff’s deed made thereunder, and this title was conveyed to Jones. In either case the full legal title had passed to Jones long before Merle purchased. The court ruled correctly in finding that Merle was an innocent purchaser, and in ordering a nonsuit.
Judgment and order affirmed.
Sharpstein, J., and Myrick, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JOHN CORCORAN v. ISADORE MERLE
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Equity—Bona Fide Purchaser—Notice—Evidence.—Upon a review of the evidence, held, that the defendant was a bona fide purchaser of the land in controversy for value and without notice of the plaintifis’ alleged equities.