Anger v. Grenada Bank
Anger v. Grenada Bank
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of -the court.
The appellant filed his bill in the chancery court against the appellee, seeking an accounting for certain profits made by the appellee on sales of property under deed of trust given by the appellant to the appellee. It is alleged in the bill: That the appellant gave a deed of trust to the appellee for certain moneys for the purchase of certain property, and that thereafter the appellant sold a portion of the property to one W. L. Corley; a part of the purchase money in the sale to Corley being applied on the indebtedpess to the bank.
The bank answered, denying the said agreements, and denying any promises to the complainant, and set up that it had acquired certain other lieus by virtue of the default in the payment of taxes and interest, and also set up other and separate deeds of trust giver by the complainant to the defendant covering, in part, the property sold under the deed of trust.
The appellant introduced considerable proof to sustain his contentions, and the appellee introduced considerable proof to sustain its contentions, and as to most of the features of the litigation there was a dispute in the testimony. The chancellor dismissed the bill.
There is one feature of the litigation that seems to be without dispute, and that is it was agreed between the Grenada Bank and Harrison that, if Harrison would bid for the said lands at the trustee’s sale, and would agree to pay the bank the full amount of Anger’s indebtedness under the deed of trust, the bank would let him have the money to handle the transaction, and would not bid at the sale, and that Harrison could have whatever profits he' could make out of handling the transaction.
The appellee’s brief in the statement of facts on this point contains the following statement:
“In those days of financial distress the Grenada Bank, as well as all other banks, was compelled to seek the liquidation of their loans or the placing of them on a better security basis in order to meet their obligations. In accordance with- their policy, the Grenada notified Mr. Anger in effect that he would be compelled to make*434 a substantial payment on his indebtedness or put up additional security because the bank was unable to carry it on its then basis. Nothing was done, and on January 4,1-921, at a time when Anger had given several deeds of trust to the bank, the bank decided that the simplest way to foreclose would be to foreclose only one trust deed, which was the first one. The bank building and country property were advertised -on that date, and were sold on January 29, 1921, by the trustee, and purchased by W. L. Harrison for sixty five hundred dollars. Including the amounts which the bank had to pay, such as the prior mortgage, taxes, and insurance, the total indebtedness of W. K. Anger to the bank was around sixteen thousand seven hundred dollars. Prior to the foreclosure, in view of the unsettled business conditions and the almost certainty that there would not be other bidders, an arrangement was made with W. L. Harrison that if there were no other bidders W. L. Harrison was to purchase the property, and the bank was to loan him the money with which to make the purchase, but [Harrison was to execute to the bank his note and trust deed, securing the whole amount of Anger’s indebtedness. There were no other bidders at the sale, and this arrangement was carried out. Subsequently the two pieces of property were conveyed by two credit sales to other parties by'W. L. Harrison. After the sale the only interest which the Grenada Bank had in the transaction was that W. L. Harrison was largely indebted to the bank for the money loaned to make this purchase. ’ ’
Both Mr. Thomas, president of the Grenada Bank, and Mr. Harrison, in their testimony agree substantially with the statement of these facts contained in appellee’s brief above- set out.
The property was bid in by Harrison for sixty five hundred dollars; there being no other bids but Harrison’s. He thereupon executed his obligations to the bank for the amount of Anger’s debt, and afterwards
It is manifest from the record that the bank would not have permitted the property to have been bought for less than the amount of its debt except on the- condition it entered into with Harrison. The bank, having obtained full satisfaction of its debt from Anger, should have surrendered to Anger his paper marked canceled and paid, and, as it did not do so, on the facts in this record the court should have granted Anger relief to this extent.
As to all the other controversies there was such dispute of facts as would authorize the chancellor to decree as he did. But it was error not to grant relief to the extent above indicated. As to this extent the judgment will be reversed, and judgment entered here directing the cancellation of the notes and deeds c5f trust of Anger to the bank under which the foreclosure was had. In all other respects the judgment of the court below will be affirmed.
Reversed in part; affirmed in part.
Reference
- Status
- Published