1 Ga. 176 | Ga. | 1846
By the Court
Toe complainants in the court below filed their bill for the purpose of setting aside a mortgage executed by Edward Stiles to Joseph Jones, Charles West, and Roswell King, jun., trustees of Caroline Clifford Stiles, on the ground that the said mortgage was fraudulent, within the provisions of the act of 19th December, 1818, as against creditors. The complainants are judgment creditors of Edward Stiles ; their judgment having been obtained subsequent to the date of the mortgage. On the trial of the cause, the defendants in the court below, offered to intro - duce Benjamin Edward Stiles as a witness, who was objected to, on the ground that he was security for the defendants on their appeal bond, and therefore interested. The defendants’ solicitors then moved the court to permit them to substitute another security on the bond, in the place of the witness, which mofion the presiding judge refused : Whereupon the defendants excepted. We are of the opinion that the court below ought
A mortgage in this State is nothing more than a security for the payment of the debt; and the title to the mortgaged property remains in the mortgagor until foreclosure and sale, in the manner pointed out by statute. It is true, the mortgagor is entitled to the equity of redemption after the debt is paid ; and the clause in this mortgage which stipulates that the surplus, after paying the pri ¡cipal lebts, interests and costs, shall be refunded to the mortgagor, confers no other, or greater privilege than the law confers upon him. The law gives him the right to the surplus of the proceeds of the mortgaged property when sold, after foreclosure, over and above the principal debt and interest, which the mortgage was given to secure, and the costs of such foreclosure and sale.
We have said, under our law, the legal title to the mortgaged property remained in the mortgagor until after foreclosure and sale. The judgment" creditor, in this case, could have levied his execution upon th" mortgaged property, and sold it, and the purchaser would have acquired the legal title, subject to ihe incumbrance of the mortgage. The fundamental error in the argument of the counsel for the judgment ci editor,