Gorgas v. Saxman
Gorgas v. Saxman
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Saxman was the mortgagor; Gorgas .the mortgagee. Two installments of the mortgage in the sum of $7,000 each, together with the accrued interest thereon, were due and unpaid. A scire facias was issued to enforce payment of the same. The appellants do not deny the amount of the payments due nor the accrued interest thereon up to a certain time, but claim that before the payments were made the mortgagor received notice from some source, not disclosed by the pleadings, that he should not pay Mr. Gorgas, because he was of unsound mind and not competent to transact business. Acting upon this information, he called upon Mr. Gorgas in company with a physician and having satisfied himself that the mortgagee was not of sound mind, did not either tender the amount of money then due, or make any further arrangement in reference to the payment of the same. It is contended that what was done was equivalent to a tender, and that interest should not be charged since the date of the discovery of the alleged inability of mortgagee to receive payment. The court below, very properly, held under these circumstances, that a legal defense was not made out by the affidavits filed, and directed judgment to be entered in favor of the plaintiff. In this we see no error. The debt was one of record. The mortgage provided for the payment of certain sums at certain times with accrued interest thereon. There was no tender in fact made to stop the interest, nor was anything done which could be construed in law as equivalent to a tender.
It is argued that the good faith of the mortgagor in making an effort to ascertain the mental condition of the mortgagee,
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 17 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Mortgage — Tender—Weak-minded persons — Act of June 25, 1895, P. L. 300. Where a mortgagor with the aid of a physician satisfies himself that the mortgagee is of unsound mind, and acting upon this belief makes no tender of an installment due on the mortgage, and does not pay the installment into court, he will be liable for interest on the installment until the time when it is subsequently paid; and this is the case although the mortgagee was, subsequently to the time when the installment was due, in proceedings under the act of June 25, 1895, found to be of weak mind. The act of June 25, 1895, operates prospectively in order to protect a person, not a lunatic, nor an habitual drunkard, but of weak mind, against his own improvidence thereafter. The power to find how long the person has been weak-minded, is not conferred by the act.