Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad v. McCutchen
Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad v. McCutchen
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court:
Appellee exhibited his bill, in the chancery court of Warren county, against appellant, showing that on the 14th December, 1870, he obtained in the circuit court of said county a judgment against appellant for $1,177.49, and had execution issued on it, which was returned “ nulla bona,” and that said judgment remained unsatisfied; that appellant, on the 25th March, 1857, executed a mortgage on -its road-bed, depots, lots, shops, locomotives, cars, furniture, and equipments, then’had or thereafter to be acquired, and its franchises, to secure certain bonds, to mature 1st January, 1869, and at the same time appellant executed a mortgage on all the land granted to it by an act of the legislature of Mississippi, ajqmoved 2d February, 1857, to secure part of the bonds mentioned in said first mortgage; that on the same day another mortgage was executed by appellant to other persons and to secure other bonds, and it conveyed .the same subject-matter as described in said other mortgages, and on the 15th August, 1859, appellant executed another mortgage on the same things, to secure specified bonds that on the 15th of March, 1866, appellant executed to trustees a deed by which it conveyed, subject to said several mortgages, to said trustees the railroad of appellant as then existing, or as it might be, and everything else it possessed or might acquire, including its franchises and its income and whatever
From this decree an appeal is prosecuted, and it is assigned as error, substantially, that the decree pro confesso is erroneous because appellant was not properly summoned, and that the final decree is erroneous because it directs an absolute sale of the equity of redemption of appellant, and the placing the purchaser of it in possession, whereas it is insisted that the remedy of complainant is by bill against the trustees of the deed of trust, and the company to pay the judgment out of the receipts of the company from the operation of the road. This bill was exhibited while the act entitled ‘ ‘ An act in relation to equity of redemption,” approved March 28, 1872, was in force. But for that act there would have been no necessity for the judgment creditor to resort to chancery. He could, have had execution levied on the equity of redemption of his judgment debtor, and caused it to be sold, and the purchaser would have acquired just the rights of the defendant in the execution. Code, § 2295. He would have been entitled to the possession of the railroad and all its property, real and personal, and the franchise of the corporation, subject to the
The act cited above provides “ that the chancery court shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all cases when the equity of redemption is sought to be sold, and corporations shall have the same notice now provided for natural persons.” Acts of 1872, p. 53.
It is by virtue of the latter clause of the section quoted that it is claimed that § 703 of the Code, as to service of process on a corporation, was repealed, and a requirement made that directors of the company should be served with summons ; and it is insisted that service of the summons on the secretary •and treasurer of appellant was not sufficient to make the corporation a part}'' to the srdt, and therefore the decree pro confesso is erroneous. It is difficult to determine what is meant by the clause of the act under consideration. Whatever it is, we do not think it can be interpreted to repeal or modify § 703 of the Code, as to the manner of serving process •on corporations. § 2409 of Code.
The term ‘ ‘ notice ’ ’ does not apply to the service of process. 'It is more appropriate to publications to non-resident or unknown defendants. It may have been used to require notice to corporations in the same circumstances in which natural persons would be entitled to notice of a proceeding to subject an equity of redemption to sale, or the same length of time, or that corporations should be brought in by summons, when natural persons had to be brought in by that means, or that publication should alike apply to both. The provisions of the Code for service of process on corporations in suits against them remained in force, unaffected by the act of 28th March, 1872, and the summons in this case was properly served, and the decree pro confesso is not erroneous.
We proceed to the main question.
Is the final decree erroneous ?
Counsel insist that it is, because, they say, the equity of
To limit the judgment creditor of the appellant to a bill to obtain satisfaction of his judgment out of the earnings of the railroad and income of the company is not only to deny him
Generally junior incumbrancers are necessary parties, because they have interests to be affected. In this case there is nothing in the record to suggest the existence of junior incumbrancers, and we are not called on to decide as to the necessity of such being made parties in a proceeding of this kind.
We do not think the failure of the bill to show the enrollment of the judgment, or the judgmeut roll, is an objection to 'the decree.
The complainant had execution returned nulla bona, and that was sufficient. Vasser v. Henderson, 40 Miss., 519.
We find no fault with the deed of trust in this case. Its validity is not questioned, nor is it doubted that it makes a Aralid appropriation of the future income of appellant to the purposes specified. It is not attempted in this proceeding to •divert from the course prescribed in the deed of trust the ■income of appellant. If that was the effort, the case of Durham v. Isett, 15 Iowa, 284, would be in point. That was a ■contest in equity between the trustee in a deed of trust conveying future earnings and income of .a railroad company to secure time bonds, and a subsequent judgment creditor who .had garnished debtors to the company for freight.
The effort of the judgment creditor was to subject, not the interest of the grantor in the deed of trust, as in this case, but the income winch had been before his judgment devoted to the uses of certain bond creditors, and it was held this could not be done. Counsel say to sell the equity of redemption is to destroy the income by withdrawing the means of producing
Decree affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad Company v. William McCutchen
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- 1. Equity or Redemption : Act of March, 187%. Service of process on corporations. This act requires the judgment creditor to resort to chancery to enable him to sell the equity of redemption of his debtor. The effect of this act was to change the mode of subjecting the equity of redemption, and not to impair any right of the creditor as against it. It provides that “ corporations shall have the same notice now provided for natural persons.” This provision does not modify or repeal § 708 of Code of 1871, as to mode of serving process on corporations. The term “ notice ” does not apply to this service of process; it is more appropriate to publications to non-residents or unknown defendants. 2. Same : Mortgages by railroad companies. A railroad company cannot defeat the right of its creditors to sell the equity of redemption by executing a deed of trust with long time to run, etc. To hold that it could would be a palpable violation of the Code ($ 2414), and contravene the policy of our law. Nor are the judgment creditors limited to a bill to obtain satisfaction of their judgments to the earnings or the income of the company. To hold such would not only deprive them of what they are entitled to under the law, but would recognize the right of a railroad company to secure itself in the possession and enjoyment of its property for an indefinite time, and compel all of its creditors to resort to the means it has provided for their payment, and not to those the law has given. 8. Same : Necessary parties. To a bill filed under the act of 1872 it is not necessary to make the mortgagees, trustees, and cestuis que trust, or any of them, parties defendant. 4. Same: Decree in equity. Sale of property. Possession. “Where the chancery court renders a decree for the sale of property, to pay debt, it is not usual to direct in the decree that the purchaser be put in possession of the property, though it does not vitiate the decree; it simply anticipates what would be done after the sale.