Clark v. Brown
Clark v. Brown
Opinion of the Court
The deed of Clark to Tuttle of an entire tract of land, and the deeds in mortgage covering only a part, but one and the same part, of the entire tract, from Tuttle to Clark and to Wyatt, were all delivered, and all entered for record, at the same time. The defendant contends that, under such circumstances, all the deeds constituted but one transaction ; and therefore that by the legal effect and operation of the mortgage deeds to Clark and Wyatt they became tenants in common of , the land, in proportion to the amount of their respective debts thereby secured; just as in the case of creditors levying executions upon land subject to simultaneous attachments. Durant v. Johnson, 19 Pick. 544. But this position cannot be maintained. The mortgage to Wyatt is necessarily to be considered as being posterior in time to that made to Clark, and therefore in effect is to be postponed to it. The deed of Clark to Tuttle, and the mortgage deed to the former from the latter, were but parts of one transaction, whereby Tuttle acquired only an instantaneous seisin; which was insufficient even to entitle a wife to dower, which does not depend upon any conveyance to her, but results by operation of law as soon as the husband, at any time during the marriage, becomes effectually seised of the land. Holbrook v. Finney, 4 Mass. 566. Until Clark made his deed to Tuttle, the latter certainly had no interest in the land, which he could make the subject of a conveyance to another * and as the deed and mortgage from him to Clark was
It can make no difference that the deeds were all entered oí record at the same moment. The law arranges acts performed, or things done, in one day, and relative to the same subject matter, so as to render them conformable to the intention of the parties. Taunton & South Boston Turnpike v. Whiting, 10 Mass. 336. The deeds having been all delivered at the same time, the several grantees must be considered as having been conusant of all that then took place concerning them. Wyatt therefore knew when he took the mortgage deed from Tuttle that the estate was already incumbered by the prior outstanding mortgage to Clark, to which his own became subject as effectually by his knowledge of its existence, as it would have been if it had been posterior in the actual time of its entry for record. Priest v. Rice, 1 Pick. 164. Kendall v. Lawrence, 22 Pick. 540.
Upon the facts agreed, judgment must therefore be rendered for the demandant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Joseph Clark v. John A. Brown
- Status
- Published