Anderson v. Riddle
Anderson v. Riddle
Opinion of the Court
This action was brought by Jennie Anderson against Heriot Riddle to recover a sum of money collected by the latter as rents from the tenants occupying certain real estate in Rock Springs, formerly owned by one Charles H. Bus-
The order was made January 30, 1897, and the receiver qualified by taking oath and giving bond, as required by the order, on or about February 2, 1897, and from that time until final decree in the cause continued to exercise the duties incumbent upon a receiver in such cases. A summons in the case was not issued until February 2, although the petition had been filed January 29, the day preceding the order appointing a receiver.
The mortgage held by Mrs. Matthews had been executed by Charles H. Bussey and wife, as had also the first mortgage held by one John H. Anderson. Bussey and wife, Anderson and the tenants in possession of the property were made defendants in the suit brought by Mrs. Matthews. Bussey and wife did not enter any appearance, and neither did their tenants. John H. Anderson, the first mortgagee, appeared, and on June 8, 1897, filed an answer and cross-petition,’ seeking by the latter the foreclosure of his mortgage, which was due, and asking for an order that the receiver theretofore appointed pay the rents for his use and benefit; but he made no allegation showing himself entitled to a receiver in aid of his mortgage. However, in January, 1898, he filed an amended answer and' cross-petition, making a showing for a receiver, and asking that one be appointed for his benefit. He thereupon moved for the vacation of the order appointing Riddle on the ground of want of jurisdiction at the time to make the order, and also for a receiver in aid of his
On December 11, 1897, the plaintiff in the present suit, Jennie Anderson, received from Bussey and wife a quitclaim deed to the premises, the same containing also an assignment of the’ rents, issues, claims and demands of the grantors against any person for the use and occupancy of the property for any term prior thereto, and of all claims and demands of whatsoever nature that said grantors, or either of them, then had against the occupants of the premises (naming them) and Heriot Riddle, or either of them. Shortly thereafter the plaintiff demanded the money previously collected by Riddle, and upon his non-compliance with such demand, this action was commenced.
Early in March, 1898, Riddle presented a petition to the court, in the action wherein he had been appointed, asking for direction as to certain matters pertaining to the receivership, and for a confirmation of the order appointing him; the petition informing the court that the validity of the original order, was being denied, and that the tenants were refusing to pay rents to him, having been notified by Jennie Anderson to refrain from doing so. A copy of that petition was served upon the tenants and also upon John H. Anderson and Jennie Anderson and Hannah Matthews, together with a notice of the time when it would be brought up for hearing. The petition was accompanied by a report of the receiver, showing his receipts and disbursements.
On the 8th day of March, 1898, the matter coming on to be heard, upon the petition aforesaid, before the Judge of the
On the nth day of May, 1898, the foreclosure suit was finally heard and determined, and the premises decreed to he sold to satisfy, after the payment of costs, first the amount due to John H. Anderson, and, second, the amount due to Hannah Matthews; and a new receiver was appointed to collect rents for the benefit of said Anderson. The property was subsequently sold under the order of the court, and all the proceeds were ordered applied upon Anderson’s claim.
On the 12th day of May, 1900, in pursuance of the mandate from this court in the case already referred to, the court made and entered its order to comply therewith so far as possible, in view of the fact that the cause had previously been determined. And it was ordered that the receiver, Heriot Riddle, pay to Hannah Matthews all moneys collected by him up to January 25, 1898, the date of the application of John H. Anderson for a receiver, and to the latter the rents collected after that date. The proper division of the expense of the receivership was also provided for by that order.
It should be stated that Jennie Anderson subsequently brought a second action to recover the rents collected after the commencement of the one already mentioned, and the two actions brought by her were consolidated for the purposes of trial. In both actions the defendant Riddle set up in his answer the proceedings of the court relative to his appointment stated above, and relied thereon as a defense to the action; but he also contested the fact of the assignment to the plaintiff, and denied that she was the real party in interest. It was averred, and insisted upon at the trial, that Jennie Anderson had taken whatever assignment had been made to her, for the benefit of John H. Anderson, and that the transaction was the result of a conspiracy or attempt to deprive Hannah Matthews of the benefits of the receiv
It is clear that by the confirmatory order of March, 1898, the court assumed control of the fund then in the hands of Riddle as receiver. It was shown that since the commencement of the suit Riddle had collected a certain amount as rents from the tenants occupying the property; and the effect of the confirmatory order, even if it be conceded that the original appointment was invalid, was to appropriate the money held by the receiver for the purposes of the case. At the hearing on the petition of Riddle the judge bad jurisdiction to appoint a receiver; and the confirmation of the order appointing him amounted, at least, to an appointment as of that date. That order was effectual and conclusive upon the parties and all others in privity with them. There can be no question but that John Anderson was bound by the order, and failing to take any steps to vacate it, he is concluded by it. As to him, the order of March, 1898, operated as a complete protection to the receiver; and had Anderson previously, but pending the suit, secured to himself an assignment from Bussey of the rents and of a supposed claim against Riddle, it would not have availed him in-a suit to recover from Riddle the money collected by him, for the reason already suggested, that he became bound by the order confirming the receiver’s appointment and also confirming his actions in the matter. (Burnham v. Dillon, 100 Mich., 352; id., 359; Hellebush v. Blake, 119 Ind., 349; Guy v. Doak, 47 Kan., 236; 27 Pac., 968; Greeley v. Provident Sav. Bank, 103 Mo., 212.) Bussey was also bound by that order. He was a party, and, moreover, publication to obtain constructive service upon him had then been made or was in progress; and it appears that at the time of the assignment he had actual knowledge of the pendency of the suit, and of the fact that a receiver had been appointed and was collecting the rents.
In the suit at bar her position is revealed; and we will proceed to inquire into the matter, to ascertain whether she was in a situation to be bound by the orders in the foreclosure suit respecting the appointment of the receiver, and the distribution of the fund in his hands. It is contended by her counsel that no order confirming or validating the appointment of Riddle as receiver made subsequent to the assignment to her can be held to interfere with her rights; that as the receiver, at the date of the assignment from Bussey to the plaintiff, was acting under a void order, the money theretofore received by him belonged to Bussey, who, for value, assigned them to the plaintiff, and that the relative right of the parties could not be altered by an order made afterwards in the foreclosure action to which she was nót a party.
We have stated that the court had jurisdiction to make the order of March, 1898, confirming the original appointment. In that connection we should explain and dispose of one proposition insisted upon by counsel for plaintiff in error. It is argued that Riddle, being a mere officer of the court, and not a party to the foreclosure suit, had no right to independently ask a confirmation of the order under which he was acting. Should that point be conceded, it would not
It is shown by the testimony of Jennie Anderson, the plaintiff herein, that at the time of the assignment to her she was cognizant of the pendency of the foreclosure suit, and that her brother, John H. Anderson, had a mortgage upon the property; and we think the trial court would have been justified in finding that her knowledge extended to the fact that the foreclosure of her brother’s mortgage was sought in the suit. Upon that particular question her answers were perhaps rather indirect and unsatisfactory; but in*view of her whole examination, and the circumstances attending the transaction, we think it fairly appears that she clearly understood the situation. She stated positively that she knew her brother had a case in court. Moreover, she testified that the transfer of the property and the claim against Riddle was brought about through the agency of her brother and his attorney. She stated in substance that she let her brother attend to the business, because he knew more about it than she did, and that he and the lawyers arranged the matter. Her testimony is fairly to. be understood also as indicating that the proposition that she should take an assignment came to her from her brother. She could not have been more than twenty or twenty-one years old at the time — December, 1897 — as on the trial in September, 1900, she gave her age as twenty-three.
The money consideration for the assignment was not in her possession and had never been. It was under the control of her brother. And, although it is testified that the sum mentioned as consideration, one thousand dollars, had been
Jennie Anderson was called as a witness by the defense, and on cross-examination the consideration for the assignment, and the manner in which she acquired it was brought out as follows:
“Q. I will ask you whether it isn’t a fact that this thousand dollars came this way; that thousand dollars was included in the original mortgage'of John, your brother?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And this thousand dollars was originally given to John and was part of the consideration of his mortgage?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And that subsequently, at the time this deed was made, I will ask if it isn’t a fact the deal was made through one of your attorneys, Mr. Reavill, and this thousand dollars your father had, went to you, through his direction to John?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And was the consideration in this deed ?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. I will ask you whether or not it is true if John gave Mr. Bussey credit on his note for a thousand dollars ?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. That is the way the deal was made?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. That John owed your father a thousand dollars, which was part of the loan to Bussey, and that subsequently your father directed that thousand dollars to go to you ?
A. Yes, sir/-
Q. And John gave it to you by giving credit on his note and having Bussey transfer this property to you, including back rents?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You understood that at the trial, didn’t you, in consultation with your attorney, Mr. Reavill?
A. Yes, sir.”
In his cross-petition, filed in June, 1897, he claimed the entire face of the note and mortgage, but in his amended pleading of January, 1898, it was alleged that one thousand dollars had been paid. It is to he understood from the testimony, we think, that the father of John and Jennie Anderson knew that the money sent by him to John had gone into the Bussey loan. John states that when the Bussey note came due his father expected the money, and that he wrote and told him just how it was.
Upon these facts we do not see how the conclusion can reasonably be avoided that the plaintiff in error was in privity with her brother, and concluded by the orders in the foreclosure suit to the same extent that he was concluded. We are of the opinion that this result follows from whatever view may be taken of the assignment from Bussey to plaintiff in error.
The trial court found generally for the defendant, and nothing in the record discloses the particular theory upon which the finding was based. If the court regarded the transaction as one entirely for the benefit of John Anderson, and the taking of the deed to Jennie as a mere subterfuge, we would not be prepared to sa}r that it was error. The explanation of the manner in which the deal was brought about is hardly satisfactory on the theory that Jennie Anderson was alone the interested party. Admitting that she was to receive one thousand dollars that was owing by her brother to her
The latter took the assignment from a party to the foreclosure suit, with actual notice of the pendency of that suit, and that the plaintiff therein, the holder of a junior mortgage, had asked for a receiver of the rents, and that an appointment was not only attempted, but that the receiver appointed had assumed control of the property and was collecting the rents. Not only that, but she parted with no new consideration. The money had before that been paid to Bussey. He received it when he took the loan; and upon the testimony of both plaintiff and her brother, she had become -beneficially interested "in the first mortgage to the extent of her father’s interest therein.
As against that mortgage, as well as against the mortgagor, the receiver was sought, and attempted to be appointed, if that appointment was void as claimed, and the appointment at a later time confirmed, and the rents in the receiver’s hands administered by the court when it had ample jurisdiction in the premises. She made .no opposition to the subse
We are unable to assent to the proposition that pending the foreclosure suit, the first mortgagee, who was a party, and had appeared, could, pending the suit, transfer a partial interest in his mortgage to another having knowledge of the facts, so as to enable the transferee to avoid the effect of the adjudications in that suit, and recover the money in the receiver's hands that were appropriated by the court when it had jurisdiction to do so. The plaintiff’s interest in the mortgage was represented by her brother in the suit, who was the legal holder, and it is not perceived how she can escape the conclusive effect of the orders therein made respecting the receivership. Had she not been connected in any way with the first mortgage, and been an absolute stranger to the proceedings, a different question, possibly, might have been presented. But her interest in the rents, whatever they may have been, was derived by virtue of the note and mortgage held by her brother. Technically, an interest in the mortgage was not assigned, but she had an interest therein equitably under the gift from her father. The assignment of the rents with a deed of the property was substituted for a part of the amount represented by the mortgage. It would not be con
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ANDERSON v. RIDDLE
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- Published