100 N.J. Eq. 193 | N.J. Ct. of Ch. | 1926
This is an application to compel a bidder at a sale of mortgaged premises to complete his bid and a counter application by the bidder to be relieved thereof.
The only point made on behalf of the bidder that has caused me any concern is the one in which he attacks the conveyance from Grunbaum to Fischer. It appears to be conceded that, in the chain of title under which the mortgagor claimed, Elizabeth Grunbaum executed a deed to Mads Fischer conveying the mortgaged premises prior to the execution of the mortgage which has been foreclosed herein, and that while her husband signed his name thereto he nowhere appears in the body of the deed as one of the grantors. So far as I know, the only adjudications upon the effect of this omission in the State of New Jersey are found in Jason v.Johnson,
The complainant seeks to meet this difficulty by citing the act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled `An act respecting conveyances [Revision of 1898],' approved June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight." P.L. 1924 p. 347. This act provides that where, in any deed conveying real property, both the husband and wife have executed and acknowledged the same, but in the body of the deed the name of one of the parties has been omitted, the conveyance shall be valid, provided it is valid in all other respects. This act is said to be invalid because of repugnance to the fourteenth *195
amendment of the constitution of the United States, because it would divest citizens of their property without due process of law. In what respect it would interfere with vested rights is not made apparent. Certainly, this bidder is not thereby injured in any way of which he may legally complain, because it is trite to say that the legislature may abolish defenses and other rights enjoyed, provided it does not infringe some other provision of the constitution, as, for example, by impairing the obligation of a contract. Baldwin v. Newark,
I will advise an order directing the bidder to complete his bid in conformity with the practice followed in Silver v.Campbell,