91 Ga. 799 | Ga. | 1893
Under this state of facts we do not think Patterson was entitled to claim anything under his mortgages. When he surrendered and cancelled them, and to secure the mortgage indebtedness and the additional debt of $165 took absolute deeds covering the same property, the lien of the mortgages was extinguished. The deeds were a security of higher dignity than the mortgages, and the change effected in the nature and form of the contract was such as amounted in law to a novation. Patterson, from being the holder simply of a lien upon the land, became vested with the absolute title. The lien of his mortgages being extinguished, he was left to stand upon his deeds, and the Evans & Turner mortgage being older than the deeds, the court was right in awarding the money to them instead of to Patterson.