Turner Const. Co. v. Union Terminal Co.
Opinion of the Court
“Tliat tlie said William T. Abbott and the said Central Trust Company of Illinois have or claim some interest in the said premises as purchasers, mortgagees. mortgagees in trust for parties unknown, judgment creditors, or otherwise, the precise nature whereof is unknown to your orator; but such interests, if any there be, accrued with notice of your orator’s said claim, and have so accrued as to bo, and they are, subject to the lien of your orator as aforesaid.”
The answer of Abbott and the Central Trust' Company of Illinois to the bill averred the execution by the owner to them as trustees of a mortgage or deed of trust on the property described in the bill to secure $240,000 of bonds and interest thereon, and set up that the claim asserted by the plaintiff is subject and subordinate to the lien created by the mortgage or deed of trust. A copy of that instrument, with a certificate thereon showing that it was duly filed for record, was made an exhibit to the answer. Formal proof of the mortgage was not made, but the record in the case shows that it was mentioned by plaintiff’s counsel and in testimony for the plaintiff as if its existence was not questioned.
We think the pleading and evidence in the cáse were such as to preclude the appellant from now raising a question as to the existence of the mortgage or deed of trust. The above-quoted averments of the bill amounted to' an admission that the defendants mentioned therein had an interest in the property sought to be subjected to the lieu asserted by the bill, and no issue with reference to that interest was tendered, except by-the averment to the effect that it was subordinate to the lien asserted by the bill. A party cannot be heard to impeach a judgment or decree because of the absence of formal proof of a fact which his pleadings and evidence in the case show was admitted or treated as uncontroverted.
The conclusion is that the decree appealed from should be modified, by inserting an order requiring the Union Terminal Company, one of the appellees, within 15 days after the filing in the District Court of the mandate of this court to join the appellant in signing a check on the Barnett National Bank of Jacksonville, Fla., for the amount on deposit therein to the joint credit of the two parties just mentioned. As so modified, the decree, in so far as it is brought into question by the appellant, is affirmed, with costs against the appellee Union Terminal Company. The disposition of the appeal of the Union Terminal Company from the same decree is shown in the opinion rendered in Union Terminal Co. v. Turner Construction Co., 247 Fed. 727, - C. C. A. - (U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, present term).
Modified and affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- TURNER CONST. CO. v. UNION TERMINAL CO.
- Status
- Published