51 Wis. 431 | Wis. | 1881
As we understand the testimony of the plaintiff, he accepted the quitclaim deed of the mortgaged premises from Osborne pursuant to an express agreement between them that the note and mortgage of February 21, 1878, for §229, was thereby satisfied and discharged. His testimony seems to admit of no other construction. By this agreement the §229 mortgage was discharged, and the satisfactions of the Huffy mortgages by Stein, in the proper records of the county, at the request of . the plaintiff, discharged those mortgages. Hence, by the acts and procurement of the plaintiff, the four mortgages in controversy were cancelled and ceased to be liens
The precise question is, therefore, whether, under the circumstances of the case, the plaintiff is entitled to be relieved of those satisfactions and of such agreement. Has he shown himself entitled to have them set aside, cancelled and held for naught.? The circuit court found (no doubt correctly) that there was no fraud or collusion on the part of the defendant Welch, the owner of the Stein judgment, and granted the relief prayed on the sole ground that plaintiff acted in ignorance of the existence of that judgment, in the matter of the satisfaction and discharge of the mortgages. Undoubtedly the plaintiff knew nothing of the judgment, and, presumably (although he has not so testified), had he known of its existence, he would not have had the mortgages discharged, or made the contract he did with Osborne for the conveyance. But that alone is not sufficient to entitle him to have the discharged mortgages reinstated as valid liens upon the land. He must also have exercised reasonable diligence to ascertain whether subsequent liens had been put upon the property. A court of equity never relieves a man from the consequences of
In Mamlock v. Fairbanks, 46 Wis., 415, this court made an application of the rule above stated. That was an action to rescind a contract of. sale of a certain note and mortgage by the defendant to the plaintiff, and to recover the money paid therefor. The ground upon which relief was claimed was, that the defendant misrepresented the identity of the debtors,
We have examined the cases cited by the learned counsel for the plaintiff on the subject of the rescission of contracts or instruments for ignorance or mistake of material facts; but in none of them, so far as we have perceived, is the question of diligen.ee raised or passed upon.
We are now to consider the question whether the present plaintiff used proper diligence to ascertain the condition of the title when he made his agreement with Osborne, and when he paid and procured the discharge of the Duffy mortgages.
The plaintiff is a man of some wealth, and is apparently familiar with the usual modes of transacting ordinary business. He evidently knew that a judgment against Osborne would be a lien upon the mortgaged premises, and also the effect upon the title of a discharge of the mortgages. He knew also that Osborne was utterly insolvent and thriftless. The number and amount of mortgages which the latter had put upon his land during the preceding seven years, absorbing its whole value, was sufficient notice to him of Osborne’s pecuniary condition. The known insolvency of Osborne would naturally make an
But this is not all. A month after he took the conveyance from Osborne, he went with Stem to the office of the register of deeds to have the latter discharge the two oldest Duffy mortgages, and some weeks later went again to the saíne office to have the other Duffy mortgage discharged. Of course, he was in close proximity to the office of the clerk of the circuit court, and could easily have gone there and ascertained whether any judgments had been entered against Osborne. It seems to us that common prudence required him to do so, or else to interrogate Stein or Osborne or Botkin as to the condition of the title. Yet he made the agreement and took the conveyance from Osborne, and procured Stein to discharge the Duffy mortgages, without doing either. He suffered the matter to rest in statu quo until an execution was issued on the judgment, and (so far as it appears) first asserted the rights claimed in. this action, on the day the land was sold by the sheriff under the execution, which was about ten months after the last Duffy mortgage was discharged.
The application of this rule may work hardship in some cases; perhaps it does in this case. But the rule requires nothing unreasonable, and is a most salutary one. It is infinitely better that men should be held to the consequences of their own culpable carelessness, than that courts of equity should undertake to relieve therefrom. The rule requires reasonable caution and prudence in the transaction of business, and is deeply imbedded in our jurisprudence. It is within the principle and reason of eaveat emptor. Mamlock v. Fairbanks, supra. The abrogation of the rule would' tend to encourage negligence and to introduce uncertainty and confusion in all business transactions.
The judgment of the circuit court must be reversed, and the cause remanded with directions to that court to dismiss the complaint.
By the Oourt.— So ordered.