14 Wis. 157 | Wis. | 1861
By the Court,
These two appeals being closely connected, will be considered together. The material facts upon the questions here presented are these. Hamilton Richardson and William Truesdell executed a mortgage to J. H. Ogilvie on certain lots in Janesville, upon which was a mill, with a right to the perpetual use of four hundred square inches of water, to secure the payment of three thousand dollars, in three instalments of one thousand each. When the first instalment became due, it seems to have been paid by William Richardson, and an assignment of an interest in the mortgage equal to the instalment was made to him, under an agreement, however, that the two subsequent instalments should have priority. Proceedings were after-wards taken to foreclose this mortgage by Ogilvie, when the second instalment became due, and a decree was made for the sale of the property, and that the balance due to Ogilvie be first paid, and then the one thousand dollars belonging to William Richardson.
Erom this sale Bennett went to the other, and bid off the property on that, for the sum of $3,805. Upon this enough was paid down to satisfy Ogilvie for what was then due, and on subsequent proceedings taken by him, he was satisfied for the balance due to him; but the thousand dollars adjudged due to William Biehardson has never been paid, and this is an application by him to compel the purchaser to pay it.
After having bid off the property at the Ogilvie sale, Bennett then refused to complete his purchase at the other sale, and the commissioner executed á deed and delivered it to the complainant’s solicitor to be delivered or disposed of as he should see fit. It seems that Bennett was bidding for the benefit of Truesdell, and that he subsequently conveyed the property to Truesdell, including the one thousand square inches of water, six hundred of which he could only have acquired title to by virtue of the purchase under the Atkinson mortgage. It is claimed, on the one hand, that this was the result of an arrangement made between Bennett and Truesdell, and Tallman, Atkinson’s solicitor, by which the latter agreed to take Truesdell’s note for the amount due
It may be that Bennett, acting for Truesdell in making the bids, trusted the subsequent transactions mostly to Truesdell,
The court below refused both applications upon the ground that it had no power to enforce the orders if made. Independent of this reason, we think the applicants were entitled to the orders. The fact that Bennett was bidding for the benefit of Truesdell, cannot be set up by him to affect the rights of other parties. That is a matter that he must arrange with Truesdell. It would be productive of great uncertainty and injustice in these sales, if a party could come and bid upon a private understanding between him and another, and then set up that to release himself from his contract.
We think also that the weight of evidence is decidedly in favor of the conclusion that he assented to the delivery of the commissioner’s deed for the purpos'3 of vesting in Trues-dell the title conveyed at the Atkinson sale. And certainly it would operate as a fraud upon all -'the parties interested in the property, to allow him, after having secured the title at the Ogilvie sale, to repudiate his bid at the other. It must be assumed that those parties interested failed to protect themselves, relying on his bid. They allowed him to bid at the Ogilvie sale, and take the. property for the amount due on that mortgage, because he had previously bid $3,500 subject to the payment of the Ogilvie mortgage. To allow him then, after bidding it off at the Ogilvie sale, after thus lulling the parties into inaction by his previous bid, to then repudiate it, would operate most unjustly upon their rights, and ought not to be tolerated. And we do not
The order appealed from must in each case be reversed, with costs, and the cause remanded with directions to enter an order in each, that the purchaser pay into court the amount of his bid remaining unpaid.
After the time limited by rule of court for making a mo tion for a rehearing had expired, and the cases had been remitted to the circuit court, an application was made to extend the time for making motions for a rehearing in these cases, and was overruled in the following opinion:
By the Court, Paine, J. After the decision of this court
For these reasons the motions are denied, with costs.