32 N.J. Eq. 262 | New York Court of Chancery | 1880
The complainant seeks a decree adjudging that a mortgage made by her to the defendant is void, because obtained by fraud. Two'grounds are specified: Eirst, that the defendant procured hereto .execute a mortgage to. him for a sum largely in excess of the debt really due; and, second, that heTnduhM'"h®Ho'Vxecute"it byTalsely representing that it was not a mortgage, but merely a written acknowledgment of her indebtedness to him.
The proof in support of the first ground is very feeble^ Aside from certain admissions imputed to the' defendant,
The parties are agreed that the defendant became urgent for a settlement in the spring or summer of 1877. The defendant says he furnished the complainant, in the spring of 1877, with the amount of his claim. In the fall of the same year the complainant began to make preparation to leave the state, and the defendant, in consequence, naturally became very anxious to have the amount of his claim liquidated and secured. lie called on her at her residence, and told her what he madethearnount of his claim; she thought she did not owe him so much, but he assured her that she did. She says she wanted him to wait, but that he replied, it would make no difference, if his claim was not right he would make it so. She further says she then gave him a note for what he said was due, and promised to give him security for its payment. She is mistaken in saying she gave him a note at this time—she first gave a due-bill, and
The second fraud charged is, that the defendant entrapped the complainant into the execution of the mortgage, by falsely representing it to be simply a written acknowledgment of her indebtedness to him. It is important to remark, just here, that when the due-bill was given, it was agreed between the parties that the complainant should have three years’ further time within which to pay her debt, upon con
These are the leading and material, facts of this part of the case. Do they show that the complainant has been
Now it must be remembered that the complainant admits that when she gave the note, secured by the mortgage, she promised to secure its payment. It must also be remembered that the due-bill was enforceable at once, and that the defendant, in accepting the' note, extended the time for the payment of his claim for three years. It will also be remembered that the complainant admits that she understood that it would be necessary for her, in order to fulfill her promise to secure the note, to execute some paper, and that she thought, when she executed the mortgage, she was executing that paper. íáhe undoubtedly knew, when she executed the mortgage, that she was pledging the land as security. This fact seems to be put beyond all doubt by her remark that the paper read like a deed. The defendant’s reply, it will be observed, described the legal effect of the mortgage as accurately as words could do it, to an unprofessional mind. The complainant understood that she was pledging the land as security for the debt. No
But the decisive fact against the complainant’s right to relief is, that she has suffered no wrong. She has done nothing more than good faith and a proper observance of her promises made it her duty to do. She was to have three years’ further time within which to pay her debt, upon giving satisfactory security. She admits that was the understanding. Her part of the bargain is secured to her she has already enjoyed the advantage of the most of what she was to gain by the bargain; she has given the defendant nothing in return, but what she now asks to have taken from him. Her claim, viewed in its ultimate consequences, is most unrighteous. She does not allege that she agreed to give one security, and that another was fraudulently substituted for it, but simply that she promised to give a security without specifying what, and then she says she gave the one she now seeks to overthrow, without knowing precisely what it was, and she now insists that it should, for that reason, be nullified. "Without suffering wrong herself, she asks the court to commit a wrong against the defendant, in order that she may escape the payment of an honest debt.
Her bill must be dismissed, with costs.