Davis v. Bessehl
Davis v. Bessehl
Opinion of the Court
On the first of August, 1877, Eliza B. Hudson made a deed of trust conveying the improved real estate here in question to Barry to secure certain debts. On the death of Barry, the plaintiff was appointed successor in- the trust and brings this suit of ejectment to the end that he may apply the rents in discharge of the debts. The defendant is the tenant of Mrs. Hudson. The deed recites that the Butchers’ & Drovers’ Bank, which was then unable to meet its obligations, had made a proposition to its creditors to pay five per cent, in cash and to issue certificates of indebtedness for the balance due to them, the contents and form of which certificates are given showing that they were to be due and payable on or before the first of August, 1880, and had as security the assets of the bank amounting to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and would be secured by deeds of trust on property of E. B. Hudson, M. F. Smith and M. C. Chambers, valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The proposition also states that the certificates would be received for debts due to the bank. Further provisions of the proposition will be hereafter noticed.
The deed then recites that a “sufficient number” of the creditors had accepted the proposition “so that the said Eliza B. Hudson deems it safe to execute the said
“Secondly : the said Butchers’ & Dr-overs’ Bank of St. Louis shall not, on or before the said first day of August, eighteen hundred and eighty, have paid, satisfied, taken up or extinguished the said certificates, and each and every one of them, then said trustee may, at the request of the holders of said certificates, or any of them re-' maining • unpaid, proceed to sell the said real estate above herein described, or any part or parcel thereof., at the east door,” etc., “provided, however, that before the said trustee shall be authorized, under the power herein given to proceed to advertise and sell the whole, or any of the above described properly, all the assets of said bank which can fairly and reasonably be considered as collectable, shall first have been collected and applied to the payment of said certificates, or sold for,' or received in payment of such assets, and all the amounts that are owing by, or collectible from, the stockholders of said bank, and that can, by reasonable diligence, be collected, shall have been first collected• and applied to said certificates.'1'1
' The certificates were not paid on the first of August, 1880, nor were they paid in 1882, when this suit was commenced.
1. The admitted facts are that at the commencement of this suit there remained a considerable portion'
Mrs. Hudson stands in the attitude of a surety for the bank, and her undertaking is to be interpreted in the light of the proposed scheme as it is set out and detailed in the ■deed. Looking at the deed as a whole, and giving effect to all of its parts we hold her liability is secondary only, and that this property cannot be resorted to for the payment of the certificates until the assets of the bank, which can by reasonable diligence be collected, are collected and applied. Until then there will be no default :and hence there was no forfeiture on the first of August, 1880’. It is clear that until then no active duties are devolved upon this trustee. The fact that the assets are not now sufficient to pay all of the certificates cannot change the result reached. The parties, as we construe the deed, have made it a security for so much of the certificates as shall remain unpaid after the assets of the bank shall have been reasonably and fairly exhausted. We are all agreed as to what has been said. The powers of a trustee are' certainly, for the most part, fixed by the stipulations in the deed, and not by law. Whether a trustee in these deeds of trust in the nature of a mortgage, like a mortgagee, can maintain ejectment, is not now decided and need not be to a proper disposition of this cause.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.