135 Minn. 254 | Minn. | 1916
Action to determine adverse claims. There were findings and judgment for the plaintiffs. The defendant Oliver Iron Mining Company appeals.
The lands in controversy are in St. Louis county. The plaintiffs claim the whole title. The Oliver Company claims an undivided one-eighth through Chester A. Congdon. The facts are involved. Those necessary to be understood for the purpose of applying the law determinative of the rights of the parties can be stated briefly.
On May 10, 1887, Martha A. Mallett was the record owner. On that day one Rice commenced an action against her and her husband Richmond D. Mallett. The Us pendens was filed on May 12, 1887. The action was in substance for a partnership accounting of the firm of Richmond D. Mallett & Company. In 1898 Chester A. Congdon by mesne conveyances succeeded to the rights of Rice and was substituted as plaintiff. Final judgment was entered on February 21, 1898. The judgment dissolved the copartnership and adjudged that Martha A. Mallett held an undivided one-half of the land in trust for the copartnership and that Congdon was entitled to an undivided one-fourth of the undivided one-half. Congdon was the attorney of the Oliver Company and purchased the Rice interest in its behalf. On February 16, 1900, he declared the trust in writing.
On June 14, 1889, Martha A. Mallett and her co-owner mortgaged the land to the American Loan & Trust Company. Several others were
“In said action the parties of the first, second, third, fourth and sixth parts shall be parties plaintiff, and the parties of the fifth part, as well as all other persons or corporations having any interest or lien upon said premises subsequent to the lien of said moitgage shall be made parties defendant.
“Said foreclosure proceedings shall be so conducted that any person who may acquire title to said premises thereunder shall have a good and perfect title thereto, save as to an undivided one-eighth of said quarter section claimed to be owned by Chester A. Congdon, and said proceedings shall be conducted in a manner satisfactory to the legal advisers of the seventh party.”
The Oliver Company was the seventh party. One purpose of the agreement was “ to induce said seventh party to explore said land for iron ore, and to acquire title thereto under said mortgage, should it elect so to do.” The premises were to be bid in by the trustee for the amount due on the debts secured by the mortgage.
Congdon was a party defendant in the foreclosure action. He appeared by attorney but did not answer. The Oliver Company was not a party.
The foreclosure sale was on June 6, 1899, and it was confirmed on June 10, 1899. There was no redemption. The plaintiffs are the ones originally interested in the security of the mortgage and for whom the purchase was made at the sale or have succeeded to their rights.
The complaint in the foreclosure action alleged that all of the defendants except the mortgagors claimed some interest or lien, but that such interest or lien, if any, was subsequent to the mortgage; that the mortgagors were at the time of the mortgage the owners in fee; that the mortgage was a first lien and a first lien of record; that the parties interested in the mortgage had no notice of any claim on the part of such defendants, and the prayer was that the defendants be barred and foreclosed of all right in the mortgaged premises. The court found these allegations true. The usual judgment of foreclosure was entered, adjudging that none of the defendants had any title or lien prior to the lien of the mortgage, and foreclosing thernl of all right except that of redemption within one year from the date of the order confirming the sale.
The judgment determined that the Congdon interest was subsequent to the lien of the mortgage. What the evidence was we do not know nor could we review it if we did. Under the evidence it may have been Tight or it may have been wrong. Whether right or wrong the adjudication is final. If wrong it could have been corrected on appeal. It cannot be attacked collaterally. That it is now sought to do. We think the weight of authority favors the view that such a judgment is binding and cannot be assailed collaterally. Hefner v. Northwestern Life Ins. Co. 123 U. S. 747, 8 Sup. Ct. 337, 37 L. ed. 309; Martin v. Pond, 30 Fed. 15; Graydon v. Hurd, 55 Fed. 724, 5 C. C. A. 258; Reagan v. Hodges, 70 Ark. 563, 69 S. W. 581; Provident L. & T. Co. v. Marks, 59 Kan. 230, 52 Pac. 449, 68 Am. St. 349; Barton v. Anderson, 104 Ind. 578, 4 N. E. 420; English v. Aldrich, 132 Ind. 500, 31 N. E. 456, 32 Am. St. 270; Shears v. Dusenbury, 13 Gray (79 Mass.) 292; St. Johnsbury & L. C. R. Co. v. Willard, 61 Vt. 134, 17 Atl. 38, 21 L.R.A. 528, 15 Am. St. 886; Ligon
The rule which denies the right to litigate a paramount title is one of practice or procedure. There is nothing in the constitution of the court or the character of the adverse title that forbids its determination. It is not, it seems to us, a question of jurisdiction, unless a statute or some positive rule of law makes it so and there is none in this state. Besides under the pleadings and findings the asserted claim was subsequent to the mortgage. It was not the litigation of a claim conceded to be paramount. If the judgment is not a bar a defendant, alleged to have a subsequent interest, could always relitigate upon the theory that his interest was prior and paramount. A judgment of foreclosure would not be a final adjudication of interests alleged to be subsequent. This result should not follow and we hold that it does not.
Judgment affirmed.