Burlingim v. Equitable Trust Co.
Burlingim v. Equitable Trust Co.
Opinion of the Court
It appears herein that the plaintiff in error, during a number of years, commencing probably in the year 1885, was local agent for defendant in error at Seward, engaged in making loans on lands or farms. During the first months of the year 1892, applications were made to him for two loans, — one in the sum of $800 and one in the sum of $2,000. The applications were approved. The coupon notes, or bonds and mortgages, were prepared, and under the supervision of the plaintiff in error were executed, and one of the mortgages was filed for record February 13, 1892; the other, March 16, 1892. At or about these dates, the notes or bonds and abstracts of titles of the mortgaged lands were forwarded to the defendant in error. On April 2, 1892, evidently in answer to a letter of inquiry and demand from defendant in error, the plaintiff wrote and sent a letter to the Trust Company in which he stated:
“S. C. Burlingim, Mortgage Loan Broker,
“First and Second Mortgage Loans.
“Seward, Neb., April 2,1892.
líE. M. Fairfield, Secy., Omaha, Febr. — Dear Sir: Yours of Apl. first received, asking me to send statement of settlement duly executed of Delos P. O’Neal, and also recorded mortgage of O’Neal and Franz, and you sa.y my commission is not payable until papers in these loans are completed. I wrote you on the 30th in regard to sending in these recorded mortgages and I wrote you that when you sent me my commission in the O’Neal loan I would send you mortgages above stated. Now I will keep these mortgages until you send me my com. Yours truly.”
Wben tbe company received tbe mortgages, it sent tbe plaintiff in error a draft, in amount $24.90, to pay the commission for effecting tbe $2,000 loan. Tbe total of tbis commission was $80. The company claimed it bad been forced by tbe plaintiff’s retention of the mortgage to incur tbe expense of sending C. M. Cowan from York to Seward, $2.85, and also to procure certified copies of tbe mortgages. Tbis last was done by Cowan when in Seward on June 8, 1892, and cost $2.25, — total expense, $5.10, which deducted from tbe whole commission, $30, there remained $24.90, tbe amount sent to plaintiff by draft after tbe company received tbe mortgages. Tbe main issuable fact, and placed in litigation by tbe pleadings, was whether or not the plaintiff’s commission on a loan became due before tbe recorded mortgage in each instance was forwarded to and received by the company. The company contended that it did not; the plaintiff, to
This action was commenced on the 8th day of June, and the mortgages were not received by the company until the 10th, and as the commission was not due, according to the finding of the trial court, until the reception of the mortgages by the company, the plaintiff had no cause of action when this suit was instituted. This being true, the judgment of the district court was right and must be
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.