State Bank v. Hileman
State Bank v. Hileman
Opinion of the Court
This is an action to quiet title to a quarter section of land in Bottineau county, North Dakota, and comes to us for a trial d& novo. The controversy is mainly between the plaintiff, the State Bank of Maxbass, which claims under a sheriff’s deed issued to it on an alleged foreclosure of its first mortgage, and the defendant John D. Gruber Company, the holder of a third mortgage, and which claims that such foreclosure was waived and abandoned by the plaintiff and is therefore a nullity, and that it still has a right to redeem within a year after the sale under a second foreclosure of the same first mortgage, which was-subsequently commenced by the plaintiff bank and which is still pending.
It appears from the record that in January, 1912, the plaintiff bank foreclosed its first mortgage for $750 by advertisement, but through inadvertence and mistake stated in its notice of sale that the amount dnewas only $310, whereas the actual amount so due was $939.15, and itself purchased the sheriff’s certificate at said sale for said first-named amount; that later and on January 17, 1913, on discovering its mistake and in order to prevent a redemption from it by the holders of subsequent encumbrances at the said sum of $310, it commenced another
We do not believe that this can be done. Before the expiration of the year of redemption both the mortgagors and the third mortgagee were expressly told that the plaintiff had abandoned his prior foreclosure. Plaintiff not only swore, or allowed his attorney to swear, that such prior proceeding was a nullity, but himself positively swore on the trial that he would not have accepted a redemption thereunder; the defendants positively swore that if it had not been for this second action they would have redeemed from the prior sale, and yet a court of equity is asked to cut off that opportunity for redemption. This it will
It is the purpose of our redemption laws to make the land of a debtor go as far in the payment of his debts as is possible, and if the plaintiff is enabled to recover the amount of its loans, with interest, it will have little ground for complaint. This opportunity the decree of the District Court gives to it, and it is therefore in all things affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE BANK OF MAXBASS, a Corporation v. HONORA HILEMAN and G. C. Hileman, Her Husband, and John D. Gruber Company, a Corporation
- Status
- Published