89 Iowa 342 | Iowa | 1893
The defendant, Dennis E. Magirl, on November 3, 1890, executed to the plaintiff his certain mortgage upon real estate therein described. Said mortgage was filed for record on the same day. On the same day the defendant executed and filed for record a chattel mortgage on certain property to plaintiff. Each mortgage expressed a consideration of one dollar. The chattel mortgage contained the following-provision: “To be void on condition that the said Dennis E. Magirl shall pay or cause to be paid all debts and liabilities that have been secured for him by said second party (plaintiff), and save and protect said second party from the payment of any and all debts which he has obligated himself to pay on first party’s account, as surety in fact or otherwise for first party.” The real estate mortgage contained a like provision. The petition avers that in fact the plaintiff had, prior to the execution of the mortgage, obligated himself to pay, as surety or otherwise for the defendant, certain notes, which are set out, and on which there is due more than three thousand dollars; that the mortgages were taken to secure the plaintiff against loss on account of his signing said notes, and obligating himself for the payment of the same; that the defendant sheriff, on April 4, 1891, and by virtue of two executions, issued out of the office of the clerk of Delaware county, Iowa, levied on the property, real and personal, covered by said mortgage, to satisfy certain judgments rendered against the defendant, Magirl. It is also averred that notice was on May 9, 1891, served upon the sheriff, informing him of the several sums still unpaid, and for which said mortgages were given as security, and claiming a lien on said property,
It is apparent that when the debt to be secured is a contingent liability, arising from the relation of a surety, the same certainty of description, in all respects, is not possible as in some other cases. Many cases are cited by counsel. We do not deem it necessary to refer to them further. After an examination of them, we are satisfied that the mortgage in suit is not so wanting in a proper description of the debt as to be void upon its face. It described the character of the debt. It disclosed that the indebtedness arose out of certain obligations assumed by the mortgagee for the mortgagor. The means were thus furnished creditors to ascertain from the parties to the mortgage the extent of the liability incurred for which the security was given. It appears from the petition that, at the time the mortgage was executed, the mortgagee was security on some nine different notes for the mortgagor, running to several different parties. Had these all been fully described, still the creditors would, in order to have known with any certainty as to what, if any, liability then existed, have been compelled to have made inquiry either of the parties to the mortgage, or of the holders of the several notes, to ascertain if they had been paid. The only additional burden imposed by the general description in the mortgage in suit is an inquiry of the parties to the mortgage as to the holders of the debt secured by it. If the appellant’s contention is correct, then a bill of sale of chattels, absolute on its face, but which was in fact given as security for a debt, would be void as to creditors, because the indebtedness which it secured was not described in the instrument.
We think the demurrer was properly overruled. Affirmed.