Price v. Blankenship
Price v. Blankenship
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiffs, wbo are minors, by their next friend, and the next friend on her own account, sue for $1,100, which is alleged to be due from defendant by reason of his sale and foreclosure of a mortgage to him executed by the father of the minors, at which sale it is alleged $1,400 was the price for which the
Defendant, for answer, admitted the execution of the mortgage as alleged, and pleaded a sale by himself as mortgagee upon an insufficient advertisement thereof, and a conveyance of the property under such sale to one J. Gr. E. Williams, who only paid for such conveyance the amount of the secured debt, wherefore defendant pleaded that the title so conveyed by him was subject to redemption by plaintiffs as the heirs of the mortgagor, and that they had no recourse against him. There was a trial by the court sitting as a jury and judgment for plaintiffs, from which defendant has appealed. The plaintiffs asked no declarations of law, and none were given. Defendant requested six declarations of law, and assigns their refusal as error. The first was a demurrer to the evidence.
We do not see that the fact that most of the present plaintiffs are minors will give them, after recovery here, any right to proceed against the purchaser which they would not have enjoyed if of full age. Both at common law and under our statutes (Revised Statutes 1889, section 1997, etseq.), minors may assert any cause of action accruing to them by their guardian or next friend, with the exception, that the guardian must sue in partition cases. Colvin v. Hauenstein, 110 Mo. 574. In all other cases they may sue by their next friend as well, who is required to give bond for the payment to them of the money recovered. An infant,
These conclusions show that the court did not err in refusing the instructions requested by defendant, upon the theory of defense presented by his answer in the present case. The judgment will therefore be affirmed. It is so ordered. Judge Bland concurs; Judge Biggs dissents, and is of the opinion that the decision is opposed to that of Kerr v. Bell, 44 Mo. 120, and he is also of the opinion that title to real estate is involved. The cause will therefore be certified to the supreme court.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). — The fact is undisputed that the sale of the land under the mortgage was made under an insufficient notice. It is stated in the majority opinion that this sale was inoperative to pass the equity of redemption, and that the only effect of the deed made by the mortgagee and the payment of the mortgage debt by the purchaser, was to transfer
The theory of my associates is that the minor plaintiffs had the right to elect to take the amount of the bid in excess of the mortgage debt, thereby surrendering or releasing their right of redemption in the land. To sustáin this proposition it must be held that an infant has the power to make a final and irrevocable decision in regard to his estate, and that in doing so he may release or forego his interest in land. This is against the fundamentals of the law. The argument that the infant plaintiffs would be concluded by a judgment in their favor for the surplus money is fallacious, for the reason that it must rest on the implication or assumption of a valid right of action in them for the recovery of the money, which I deny. In all cases (including those cited in the opinion) where minors have been held to be concluded by the litigation to which they were parties, their right to maintain the suit or to be sued in respect of the subject-matter of the action was unquestioned. Thus in Kansas City Railroad Company v. Morgan, 76 Fed. Rep. 429, Morgan sued the railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries. In defense of the action the railroad company interposed a former judgment for the same injuries. Morgan received the injuries during his minority, and his father, who acted as next friend, had prosecuted an action in Morgan’s name for damages for the injuries, and he recovered a judgment therefor. The supreme court of Kansas rightfully held that Morgan was bound by the result of that litigation. So in Gregory v. Molesworth, 2 Atkyns, 625, it was held that an infant was bound by a judgment in his favor as to his personal estate. There his right
Again, I very much question the right of a person who is sui juris to make such an election. . The mortgagor is entitled to the surplus proceeds arising from a foreclosure sale upon the theory that such surplus represents his equity of redemption. If the sale, as a foreclosure sale, is invalid, upon what principle can he lay claim to the surplus,-or assert that there is a surplus? "What does the purchaser buy at such a sale? Nothing but the mortgage debt and the right to have the legal title to- the mortgaged land transferred to him as security for the debt. If his bid exceeds the debt, to whom does the excess belong? Certainly not to the mortgagor, for his rights as the owner of the equity of redemption have not been prejudiced in the least. Upon what principle, then, can he elect to release his equity in the land and demand the excess? The authorities cited in the opinion of my brother judges do not announce any such principle. Mr. Jones, in his work on mortgages (section 1920a), merely asserts that where the mortgagor receives the surplus proceeds of an invalid sale with knowledge of the defects, or if he retains the money after such knowledge has come to him, he will be afterward estopped to deny the
It seems to me that this record involves the decision of questions that ought to be decided by the supreme court. It may well be said that title to real estate is involved. The judgment can only be sustained upon the idea that the plaintiffs (all of whom are laboring under disabilities as to the disposition of their real estate) have the right by an election of remedies to release their equity of redemption in the mortgaged property. On that theory the judgment has the effect of working a divestiture of their title. Moreover, when these infants become of age they may seek to redeem the land. If so the supreme court would
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.