69 So. 574 | Ala. | 1915
This appeal presents the question whether a mortgagor, a citizen of this state, can obtain a loan from a foreign corporation that has not complied with the law authorizing such corporation to do business in the state, and then maintain a bill to cancel the mortgage, on the ground that the same is void, without offering to do equity by a return of the money received. Will a bill to quiet title under sections 5443-5449 of the Code of 1907, in such a case, relieve the mortgagor of the requirement to do equity by restoring the money secured by the mortgage?
The bill alleges that appellants are in the peaceable possession of the real estate described, claiming to own the same in their own right, and that appellees are reputed to hold a lien or incumbrance thereon, that no suit is pending to enforce or test the validity of such incumbrance, and that this suit is brought to settle the title to the lands and to clear all doubts and disputes concerning the same; and it calls upon the defendant (appellees here) to “set forth and specify their reputed lien and incumbrance upon said lands, and how and by what instrument the same is derived and created.” Appellee trustee, as respondent in the court below filed his plea as follows: “And now comes defendant, Rosser J. Coke, as trustee of the bankrupt estate of Standard Real Estate Loan Company, and by protestation, and not confessing any of the matters in the plaintiffs bill to be true in such manner and form as the same are therein set forth, does plead thereto, and for plea says that defendant is the OAvner of an unpaid mortgage or deed of trust executed by complainants to the Standard Guarantee & Trust Company, S. L. Harris, trustee, on March 5, 1905, covering lands described in the bill. A certified copy of said mortgage
Said appellee filed, in addition to said plea, a demurrer to the bill, for that the bill is without equity and fails to offer to do1 equity, and then by answer sets up the mortgage executed by appellants on March á, 1915, for $1,008.66 and interest thereon, payable as therein indicated to the Standard Guarantee & Trust Company, a corporation of Washington, D. C., and S'. L. Harris, trustee, secured by the lands described in the bill, providing for foreclosure in event of default, etc., and duly recorded in the probate office of the county where the land is situated; that the grantee in said mortgage became a bankrupt, and appellee was duly appointed by the federal court of the Northern district of Texas as trustee of the bankrupt estate of the said mortgagee; and that the mortgage was in his possession and unpaid at the time of his plea and answer in said cause.
The decree of the chancellor was in accordance with this view, and it is affirmed.
Affirmed.