26 Minn. 365 | Minn. | 1880
This action was decided in the court below, upon the point that the plaintiffs’ right of action had become barred by the statute; and if the point is well taken, it disposes of the case. Without considering and definitely determining the nature of the transaction between the parties, as disclosed by the findings, but viewing it in the light presented, by plaintiffs as the one most favorable for them, as a loan of money made by defendant upon the premises in controversy, the legal title to which was vested in him, at the time, for the purpose of securing the repayment of the loan, the right of action belonging to plaintiffs, if any, is one of redemption. Whether this right is barred by the statute of limitations depends upon the question when the loan became due and payable, and defendant’s right of foreclosure consequently accrued, and whether the statutory period of ten years, limited for the exercise of that right, has since elapsed;' for, as a general rule, the right of foreclosure and the correlative right of redemption are mutual and reciprocal, and when one is barred so that it cannot be enforced, the other is also gone, unless some special facts and circumstances exist, taking the case out of the operation of the general rule, of which there can be no pretence in this case. Holton v. Meighen, 15 Minn. 69 , King v. Meighen, 20 Minn. 264; Parsons v. Noggle, 23 Minn. 328.
But for the stipulations contained in the written lease from defendant to Murray, and its subsequent renewals from time to time with the concurrence of plaintiffs, it is not pretended that any specific time was fixed when the alleged loan was to be repaid; and if such was the fact, of course there was noth
Thus considered, it is plain that the stipulation — which, in its terms, gave the privilege of purchasing the premises during the term, upon complying with the conditions named in the lease — operated to extend the time-for the payment-of the sum loaned for that period; and it is equally obvious that such extension terminated upon the expiration of -the term. The lease was for the term of one year from January 1,1862, and contained covenants obligating the lessee to pay the spec
It is contended by plaintiffs, however, that the sums which defendant got from sales and rents, after he obtained possession of the property in February, 1869, operated as payments upon the alleged mortgage, as of the dates when received, and had the like effect in keeping it and the equity of redemption thereunder alive, as against the statute of limitations. This position necessarily rests upon the assumption
According to the findings of fact herein, ever since the time when plaintiffs’ right of redemption first accrued, and for more than ten years prior to the commencement of this action, the defendant, with full knowledge-on the part of plaintiffs and their representative, Murray, has openly and continuously disclaimed and denied the existence of any mortgage relations between him and them, and all rights growing out of the same. In terminating the tenancy under the lease to Murray, he demanded possession in his right, as absolute owner of the real property. Iff that capacity he thereafter instituted legal proceedings to dispossess Murray,- and to recover the possession, and, after a somewhat protracted litiga, tion, in which the same claim here made by the plaintiffs, in respect to the nature of the transaction between the parties, was interposed as a defence, he finally succeeded in establishing his right of recovery, and at once went into possession
The decision of the court below is affirmed.