Hawks v. Sawyer
Hawks v. Sawyer
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
A number of questions have been raised and discussed by counsel in the argument, which under the view we have taken of the case, it is not necessary for us now to decide. Upon the facts found by the commissioner, we think it quite clear, that the trustee has no funds in his hands belonging to the principal debtors with which he can properly be made chargeable in this suit. The only important question to be considered in this connection, is as to the amount received, by Williams and Baldwin under their decree foreclosing their mortgage upon the property of the principal debtors. At the time Williams & Baldwin commenced proceedings to foreclose their mortgage, they made all subsequent mortgagees, and all attaching creditors, parties to the bill. The number of such parties was large, and the plaintiff in this suit was one of them. This gave all persons interested in the property an opportunity to come in and redeem that, if they thought it worth more than the debt due to Williams & Baldwin. It also appears that Williams & Baldwin strongly urged said parties to redeem the property, and relieve them from it, and after the decree became absolute, they made great exertions to sell the property, offering to take two hundred dollars less than the amount of their decree, but could not find a purchaser at that price, and finally sold it for $2500., nearly $500. less than the amount of the decree. This furnishes strong evidence that the property was not considered worth that amount, and the commissioner has found expressly that neither the said Williams & Baldwin, then plaintiffs in this suit, nor any of the other defendants in the bill, considered the property, which passed to the said Williams & Baldwin under their decree, to be worth any more than the amount of said decree, which was $2987.28, and the commissioner further finds the fact that that sum was the true value of the property at the expiration of the decree, in the hands of the said Williams & Baldwin. He further finds that the property in the
There is a statement in the report tending to show, that if Putnam who was acting for Williams & Baldwin in endeavoring to make a sale of the property, had acted in good faith towards them, they might have sold the property for $3000., but if they had it would have made no difference in the result in this case, as there would still have been a balance due them in the adjustment between them and the principal debtors,
The result is the judgment of the county court discharging the trustee is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- John F. Hawks v. J. F. and T. R. Sawyer, and Thomas Williams, Trustee
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published