Jones v. Phelan & Collander
Jones v. Phelan & Collander
Opinion of the Court
after stating the case, proceeded:
If Phelan and Collander had taken a deed of trust from Jones and Griswold on the billiard tables to secure the purchase money, and caused the deed to be recorded before the property was carried on the leased premises, the hen of the deed would have been good against the lessor’s claim for rent, and only the lessees’ interest in the property, to wit, the equity of redemption, would have been liable to distress. But the deed of trust to Coke to secure the debt .to Phelan & Col-
This would undoubtedly have been the case had no subsequent deed of trust been executed by the lessees on the property on the leased premises not included in the first deed of trust. If no such subsequent deed had been executed, and if, by an agreement between the lessors, lessees and creditors secured by the first deed, all the property on the leased premises, as well that included in the first deed as that not so included, had been sold for the purpose of having the proceeds of sale distributed among the parties according to their respective rights; could there be any doubt as to the manner in which the distribution would be made ? Is it not clear that the proceeds of the property not included in the deed of trust would first be applied to the payment of the rent due to the lessors, and that the proceeds of the property included in that deed would only be applied to the payment of any rent
Such would be the state of the case if the second deed of trust had not been executed; that is, the deed to Guigon to secure a debt alleged to be due by the lessees to Thomas M. Jones. How does that deed affect the case? Does it impair those rights to which we have seen the creditors claiming under the first deed would clearly have been entitled if the second deed had not been executed?
'When the second deed was executed, the lessors had a lien for the rent due them, on all the property on the leased premises, and Phelan & Collander had an inferior lien, by deed of trust, on a part of that property, which deed of trust was duly recorded. These trust-creditors had a right, as between themselves and the lessors and lessees, to require that the property on the leased premises, and not included in the deed of trust, should be applied to the payment of the rent due to the lessors, before the property included in the deed should be resorted to for that purpose. The second deed of trust was obtained by Thomas M. Jones, the
But all the judges who sat in Conrad v. Harrison concurred in the decision of that case, and its authority has never been doubted. It plainly applies to the case now under consideration, which is not the ease of a judgment lien, but that of a lessor’s lien for rent, which stands on the same principle with the lien of a mortgage in regard to the subject of the present enquiry. I therefore think that Conrad v. Harrison is conclusive of this case, and that, upon the principles declared in that case, the appellees, Phelan & Collander, are entitled to the entire fund in controversy in this case.
It can make no difference that the distress warrant of the lessors in this ease was levied on the properly conveyed by the first deed of trust, instead of the property not conveyed by the first but conveyed by the second deed of trust. The lessors could not, in that way, defeat or impair the right of the creditors secured
It was contended by one of the counsel of the appellants, that the doctrine which was applied in Conrad v. Harrison, and is sought to be applied in this case, is not applicable to personal, but only to real estate. I think it is applicable as well to personal as to real estate. The same reason exists for its application to ■each, and I have never before heard a question raised as to its being applicable alike to both. Of course the doctrine of Beverley v. Brooke could have been applicable only to real estate, because a judgment is a lien ■only on real estate.
Since writing the above, I have been reminded by my brother Staples of the case of Enders, &c. v. Brune, 4 Rand. 438; and referred by him to the case of Slade v. Van Vechter, 11 Paige R. 21, as being not only cases of the application of the doctrine of Conrad v. Harrison to personal estate, but also eases strongly sustaining the decision of the court below in this case. I have also examined the case of ex parte Stephenson, De Gex’s Bankruptcy Cases 586, referred to in the brief of the counsel for the appellees (to which case I had not access when I prepared the foregoing opinion), and I find it to be, as maintained by that counsel, singularly applicable to the present case. The subj ect in that case 'also was personal estate.
I am of opinion that there is no error in the decree ■of the Circuit court, and that it ought to be affirmed.
The other judges concurred in the opinion of the Bresident.
Decree affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jones & als. v. Phelan & Collander
- Status
- Published