Coon v. Bosque Bonita Land & Cattle Co.
Coon v. Bosque Bonita Land & Cattle Co.
Opinion of the Court
On the twentieth day of October, 1885, the defendant; company, the Bosque Bonita Land & Cattle Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the territory of New Mexico, executed a deed of trust to Antonio y Abeytia, as trustee, to secure the payment of twenty coupon bonds, for $500 each, payable in ten years after date to the order of complainant, A. D. Coon, or order, at the Chatham National Bank, in the city and state of New York, with interest at one per cent per month from date until paid. The deed of trust contained the usual clause for sale and foreclosure on the default of payment of any of the interest due at any time, or in. case of a breach of any of the covenants or agreements in the same by the said company, or any part of the principal. The trust deed, bonds, and coupons were properly executed, issued, and delivered to said Coon, who advanced the said company $10,000 thereon.The trust deed charged, in trust, to secure the loan, certain live stock and real estate, the property of the said company, situate in Socorro county. It also contained a provision that, in the event of the death or inability of the trustee named to act, the sheriff of Socorro county should then act as such trustee. The trust deed also contained a clause, after stating the conditions of sale, “and all other expenses of this trust, including all moneys advanced for insurance, taxes, or for any money paid by the party of the third part,” meaning Coon as the party of the third part. At different times thereafter, Coon advanced to the general manager of the company, with the knowledge and consent of the other officers, various sums of money, for the company, in addition to the $10,000 loan, for the purpose of paying taxes, repairing an acequia for irrigating alfalfa growing upon a portion of the mortgaged premises, and to throw up an embankment to protect the farming lands from inundation by the Rio Grande, and took notes from the company for the same, in amount of $957.82 with interest, at one per cent per month from date until paid, which notes were signed by the said company, by Ira E. Leonard, president, and Charles O. Tiffany, secretary and treasurer, and approved by J. C. Tiffany, general manager, and were dated January 1 and April 10, 1886. In the latter part of February, 1887, J. C. Tiffany paid Coon the $10,000 and interest to that date with his personal check on the Albuquerque National Bank; and Coon indorsed the bonds and coupons “without recourse,” and delivered them to said Tiffany, and held the original deed of trust, and the two notes which were not paid. Some time thereafter said 'Tiffany deposited all of the said bonds and coupons in the Albuquerque National Bank. Afterwards said Tiffany became personally indebted to said bank, and gave his notes and said bonds as collateral, and after-wards, on September 18, 1888, said company gave its two notes, for $5,000 each, to said bank, in lieu of Tiffany’s personal notes. And the bank held the said bonds as collateral, and the bank made further advances, and took additional security; but when the company authorized the making of said two notes to said bank, and giving additional security, it expressly reserved in its resolution, from the effects of further incumbrances, the Bosque Bonita ranch, the real property here in controversy. In December, 1889, the complainant, Coon, filed his bill in the district court ■ against the Bosque Bonita Land & Cattle Company, the Albuquerque-National Bank, and the trustee sheriff, for an accounting, and for a decree for payment to him of whatever might be found due by the said defendant corporation, or the Albuquerque National Bank, and that the sum so found due him on said promissory notes be decreed a prior lien on the mortgaged property, over the said bonds and coupons, and for complainant’s solicitor’s fees, and in case of default in the payment. the property be sold and foreclosed; and for general relief. The Bosque Bonita Land & Cattle Company did not answer, or make any defense, but the Albuquerque National Bank answered the bill, and denied that the debt for which said two notes were given was, by virtue of the language in the defeasance clause in the mortgage deed, — “including all moneys advanced for insurance, taxes, or for any money paid by the party of the third part,” sufficient to create a prior lien to that of said bonds, and was insufficient in law to bind the defendant bank, and denied that any power of sale existed by law in said mortgagee to sell and foreclose, except in default of payment of interest or principal, and then only at the instance of the holders of said bonds or coupons; and also denied that there was any agreement for future advance by said Coon to said company, other than the $10,000, at the time of the execution of the said mortgage, and that it was understood then that, for any further advance by Coon, additional security was to be given; denied that the debt on said notes was due and unpaid; averred that on February 19, 1891, said bank, as the holder of said bonds and coupons, sold and foreclosed said mortgaged property in accordance with the au-. thority in said deed of trust contained, and became the purchaser of said mortgaged property, but denied that the property brought sufficient money to pay the sum of principal and interest due said bank on said bonds; with a general denial to all the material issues in the bill, — to which complainant filed a general replication, and the cause was referred by the court to a special master, to take proofs, and report his findings of facts and conclusions of law thereon. The special master took the proofs, and reported his findings in favor of complainant. Defendant bank interposed objections and exceptions to the master’s report, which were denied, and the report was confirmed, and a decree by the Fifth judicial district court was entered for the sum of $1,906.34 due complainant on said note, against the Bosque Bonita Land & Cattle Company and the Albuquerque National Bank, with an order for sale and foreclosure in default of payment by said company and said bank, and for a deficiency judgment in case the proceeds of sale did not satisfy the amount; and the property was sold and' bid in by complainant. And from this decree and order defendant bank appealed, but did not give a supersedeas bond; and pending the appeal the venue was changed to the second district, and the report of the sale by the special master was there approved, and the case is here on appeal also from that court.
It is held here that the sum of $1,906.34 found to be due to the appellee, Abraham D. Coon, by the special master and the court below, constituted and is a prior and' paramount lien, in favor of said appellee, to the amount due on said bonds and coupons, and that the final decree made and entered by the'Fifth judicial district court be modified by striking out the decree and judgment for the indebtedness claimed, as against the appellant, the Albuquerque National Bank, and that the final decree, ih all other respects, be, and the same is, affirmed, and that the decree approving the sale of the mortgaged property by the Second judicial district court be, aud the same is, affirmed, with an order to said court to require the said special master to execute and deliver the deed as therein required.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). — I must dissent from the majority opinion and the judgment of the court in this case. I think the principle of limiting general words by the context in which they appear is overridden in that opinion, and that only “money paid by the party of the third part,” as in some way incidental and subservient to the securing of the $.10,000 debt and interest, was contemplated in the clause of the deed of trust upon which this cause turns. The fact that money which might be advanced under that clause would stand on the same footing as if advanced for insurance and taxes, and that it is a claim superior in dignity to the main debt, are reasons, of themselves, sufficient to forbid the idea that future advances, in the way of additional loans, were being provided for. If these general words are limited by the context, then it must be that the money must be “paid” in the way of providing for “expenses of the trust;” and, as advancing money for insmrance and taxes is agreed by the parties to be among “the expenses of the trust, other things, like unto insurance and taxes or other such moneys, are meant, and no more. Money advanced for improvements on the property, such as constructing embankments to prevent overflow by the Rio Grande from an apprehended flood, or to provide irrigating ditches for raising crops, I respectfully insist, are not of the nature of either insurance or taxes. Even though the evidences may have tended to show that at the time the money was advanced to dike the Rio Grande a flood was imminent, and that the value of the security would have been .greatly impaired if such dike had not been constructed, yet, as such evidence does not show that at the time of the execution of the deed of trust, there was any such fear, nor show that such flood was anything unprecedented, or even very extraordinary, I do not think the expenditure for such a dike can be considered anything but a mere loan, not covered by the ■clause in question. If it were a question of advancing money to repair damages caused by the act of God, it might come under the principle of money advanced for insurance, but this I even doubt, as the clause in question could not, by a*ny • fair rule of construction, include expenditures for throwing up embankments to protect the land from the river, or for raising crops on the land, I think no money has been paid by the complainant which entitles him to proceed against the security for the obligation held by the bank. This view, also, would dispose of the question of notice to the bank. I think the decree in favor of complainant should have been set aside, and his bill dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ABRAHAM D. COON v. BOSQUE BONITA LAND & CATTLE COMPANY
- Status
- Published