McDougal v. People's Savings Bank
McDougal v. People's Savings Bank
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
There is a conflict of evidence upon the point whether the debt due on the compromise with Ramsey was the debt of the appellant or that of her husband. The Chancellor has evidently found it to-have been appellant’s debt, and we approve this decision. The debt or charge which existed in favor of Ragsdale for the unpaid rent was neither the debt of the husband nor of the appellant. The husband had no sort of connection with the contract from which it arose, and the complainant, being a married woman, did not have-capacity to contract the obligation so as to charge her separate-estate with its payment. It was a mere charge upon the demised premises, and by the lease Ragsdale had carved out for himself a remedy to enforce its payment. The debts of the husband to Rags-dale and others, which were discharged out of the money advanced-by the bank, could not by the complainant be charged upon the-corpus of her estate, and nothing is added to the strength of defendant’s right by invoking the rights of these creditors, because they had none.
Looking behind the note, it appears that the complainant executed a deed of trust to secure the payment of one hundred and twelve dollars due by herself arising from a contract which she had capacity to make and for which her separate estate could be
Though it appears that the property is now worth many times the price at which it was sold, it is clearly shown that by reason of the low prices prevailing at that time and the dilapidated condition of the house it brought about its fair market value; nor do we think any unfairness, fraud, or inequitable advantage appears in the fact, conduct, or terms of sale.
We recognize to its full extent the wholesome rule that courts of equity will rigidly scrutinize «ales made under powers contained in mortgages and deeds in trust, especially where the beneficiary becomes the purchaser, and wijl not permit them to stand if there is anything casting well-founded suspicion upon their fairness, but will protect all parties by directing a re-sale under the eye of the court. This rule we neither disregard nor limit, but hold that under the facts of this case it has no application.
The complainant, however, insists that, notwithstanding it may appear that the sale was fairly made by the trustee, yet because a part of the debt which was paid by the sale was beyond her capacity to contract, she being a married woman, the sale itself was void, or, if not void, it was at least voidable at her election.
And this power of disposition could be executed by an attorney by her properly appointed. Code of 1871, §§ 1778 and 1897.
In the multitude of cases which arose under these statutes there-were great numbers in which the contracts of married women were involved and numbers in which incumbrances or conveyances for the separate debt of the husband were sought to be enforced or defeated, but no case is known to us in which the question now before us was presented.
In Chandler v. Morgan, 60 Miss. 471, it was held that a married woman could not make a valid contract to indemnify one who at her instance became surety for the appearance of another charged with crime, and a mortgage executed by her to secure such indemnity was decreed to be cancelled. But in that case the objection was made before the execution of the power of sale conferred by the-deed, and the mortgage stood at the time of the institution of the proceeding to cancel as a mere security for the performance of the invalid contract, and since the contract was itself unenforceable, so-
A part of the debt intended to be secured and for the payment .of which the property conveyed was devoted to sale was her debt, binding upon her estate and enforceable as a contract, and this debt remained unpaid ; the property was of an indivisible character; the contingency upon which the trustee was authorized to act arose,
The decree is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Elizabeth S. McDougal v. People's Savings Bank
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- 2 cases
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- Married Woman. Attempt to avoid sale under trust-deed. Consideration. Case in judgment. In 1876, M., a married, woman, executed a deed of trust upon certain real estate, being her separate property, to secure the payment of a certain sum of money borrowed from a bank and used in paying two debts, one for one hundred and twelve dollars, which she had legal capacity under the Code of 1871 to contract, and the other for one hundred and sixty-four dollars, which she could not contract so as to hind her separate estate generally, but which was a charge upon the particular property conveyed by the deed of trust. Default having been made in the payment of the debt secured, the trust property, which was of an indivisible character, was sold by the trustee and bought by the bank at the price of two hundred and fifty dollars. M. made no objection to the sale, but several years thereafter filed her bill in chancery to avoid the same, on the ground that a part of the debt for which it was made, and which was thereby paid, was beyond her capacity to contract. Held, that the contract embraced in the deed of trust being no longer executory, but having been fully executed, the sale, in the circumstances of this case, must be upheld.