On Jаnuary 16, 1959, the appellees, First National Bank of Laurel, The California Company, and M. W. Hill, filed their original bill in the Chancery Court of the Second Judicial District of Jones County against
The appellants answered the original hill denying the alleged title of the appellees and claiming title to the minerals and seeking- by cross-bill to cancel all claims of the appellees to the minerals involved and to have the title to said minerals confirmed in them. It is alleged in the original bill that the First National Bank of Laurel and M. W. Hill are the owners of certain mineral interests in the lands involved, and that the California Company is the owner of oil, gas and mineral leases executed by the First National Bank of Laurel and M. W. Hill conveying mineral interests in the lands described. After a full hearing on the merits, the trial court grafted the prayer of the original bill and dismissed with prejudice the cross-bill of the appellants. From this decree the appellants prosecute this appeal.
The record discloses the following: On December 31, 1929, G. L. Temples was the owner of the fee simple title to the 320 acres involved. On that date he and his wife executed a deed of trust to A. B. Schauber, Trustee for the First National Bank of Laurel, securing an indebtedness of $1650, evidenced by their рromissory note dated December 1,1929, due one year from date, and any other indebtedness owing or to become owing by the grantors to the said bank. The note was not paid on its maturity date, December 1, 1930, and G. L. Temples and his wife executed a renewal note for $1650 dated December 1, 1930, and due December 1, 1931. A pаyment of $150 was made on this note and the balance became in default on December 1, 1931, when the said Temples and his wife executed a renewal note to the bank for $1500, dated December 1, 1931 and due September 15,
On the date of the last renewal note, namely, October 15, 1936, G. L. Temples and his wife addressed the following letter to the Chancery Clerk of Jones County; “Chancery Clerk
Jones County
Laurel, Mississippi
Dear Sir:
The First Natiоnal Bank of Laurel, a corporation of Laurel, Mississippi, the beneficiary named in the Deed of Trust executed by me and my wife Tavie Temples on the 31 day of Dec., 1929 and recorded in your office in Record 25, page 194, has consented to the renewal and extension of the indebtedness secured thereby for 60 days from this date, and we therefore ask that you attest the memorandum of extension entered by said bank, or A. B. Schauber, the Trustee in the Deed of Trust, on the margin of said record in these words
‘ This Deed of Trust is hereby renewed and extended for 60 days from this date by agreement between mortgagor and mortgagee. This, the 15 day of Oct., A.D., 1936.’
This shall be your authority for so doing.
Very truly yours,
Signed in the presence of: G. L. Temples
F. G. Amsler Tavie Temples
J. L. Sullivan”
This renewal and extension, therefore, appears to have been entered on the record by Mr. Amsler, representing the bank, on December 9,1936. Default was made in the payment of the aforesaid note dated October 15, 1936 and extended for sixty days, or to December 15, 1936, and the bank thereupon began foreclosure proceedings. The first notice of sale under the foreclosure proceedings appeared on October 30, 1937. The bank became the purchaser at the foreclosure sale and the entire property, that is, 320 acres, was сonveyed by the trustee in the deed of trust to the bank under the date of November 22, 1937. According to the overwhelming proof, the bank went into possession of the property immediately, making conveyances of the surface of some of it and retaining mineral interests, and the bank and its successive grantees remainеd in possession of the property, leasing some of it, selling timber therefrom, and exercising acts of ownership over it, and paying taxes thereon up to the time of the institution of this suit on January 16, 1959, a period of over 21 years. During this period of time, according to the proof, none of the appellants claimed to be the owner of the property or asserted title thereto except through the bank. After the lapse of this period of over 21 years, the appellants, for the first time, asserted title to the property involved or the minerals therein, and they now attack the validity of the foreclosure sale upon the grounds that at the time of the foreclosure sale action on the note and on the deed of trust was barred by the statute of limitations.
The appellants argue that the debt became barred on December 1, 1936, or on December 15, 1936, the date to which the extension was noted on the margin of the record оf the deed of trust. They therefore rely upon Section 743 of the Code of 1942, providing as follows: “The completion of the period of limitation herein prescribed to bar any action, shall defeat and extinguish
In other words, it is their contention that in any event the indebtedness was extended to December 15, 1936, and that this date marked the expiration of the period of limitation. Therefore, they say that the foreclosure sale was void because action on both the note and deed оf trust was then barred by the statutes of limitation. They would be correct in their contention that the foreclosure sale was void because the bar of the statutes of limitation had already run on the debt and on the deed of trust but for the fact that the indebtedness from its original maturity date was renewed from time to time by new notes. Of сourse, if the statutes of limitation had run at the time of the sale both the right and the remedy on the note and deed of trust would have been extinguished and the sale would therefore have been void. The proof, however, does not support this contention. All of the renewal notes were executed prior to the running of the statutes of limitation. The acknowledgement of the indebtedness, executed and entered on the margin of the record of the deed of trust under date of October 15, 1936, was effective to start the running of the statutes of limitation anew from this day forward.
In 54 C.J.S., Limitations of Actions, Section 320(a), it is said: “An acknowledgment or new prоmise fixes a point of time from which limitations begin to run anew, and an action commenced within the statutory time thereafter is not barred by limitations. If such acknowledgment or promise is made before the bar of the statute has become complete, it starts the statute anew from the date of the promise or аcknowledgment and against the original claim, unless the new promise is intended by the parties to take the place of the original liability, in which case the period of limitation is determined by the character of the new promise.”
The appellants cite and rely upon Proctor v. Hart,
The appellants also cite in support of their contention the case of Perkins v. White,
“Under these statutes the remedy on the deed of trust became not only barred but completely extinguished on September 1, 1935, and, m the absence of a renewal, or institution of foreclosure proceedings, the power of sale and all other rights conferred by the deed of trust were utterly destroyed on that date.” (Emphasis ours)
In
In 34 Am. Jur., Limitations of Actions, Section 294, page 237, appears the following: “. . . . it appears to be generally held that an acknowledgment of the debt evidenced by the bond or note, which operates to suspend or interrupt the running of the statute of limitations therеon, or to revive the debt after it is barred, also tolls the statute of limitations as to the mortgagee or deed of trust securing the debt. Similarly, if before a vendor’s lien is barred by limitations, a new promise is made to pay the purchase-money debt, this will toll the running of the statute against the enforcement of the lien as against thе purchaser.”
Of course the rule is well recognized that if no effort is made to renew or extend a note or mortgage securing the same until after the note is barred, the right and remedy as to the note and the mortgage is barred and cannot be revived by a new promise or acknowledgment of the debt. In the case before us, however, the new acknowledgments and new notes executed from time to time extended the maturity date of the indebtedness to December 15, 1936, and started the running of the period of limitations anew from that date. We have no hesitancy in holding, therefore, that on this record the note and deed of trust werе clearly not barred at the time of the foreclosure and the foreclosure was valid and the bank acquired a fee simple title to the property involved.
The foregoing conclusion disposes of this case favorably to the appellees, but we mention one other point. The appellеes plead adverse possession. The proof is overwhelming that the bank, after purchasing the property at the foreclosure sale, went into the imme
The chancellor found from conflicting evidence that the bank and its succеssive grantees had exercised such possession over the land to the exclusion of all others as that the title has thereby become vested in these appellees. Directly in point and applicable to the facts of this case is the case of Carlisle, et al v. Federal Land Bank, et al,
Affirmed.
ON MOTION TO RE TAX COSTS
The appellants have filed a motion to retax the costs in this case so as to disallow the chancery clerk’s fees for including in the transcript certain instruments and documents consisting of process on defendants, subpoenas for witnesses, and duplication of instruments, all appearing more particularly as follows:
On pages 35, 36 and 37 are copies of summons and returns;
On pagеs 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 94, 95 and 96 are copies of subpoenas for witnesses;
A deed of trust shown on pages 29 and 30 is duplicated on pages 114, 115, 286 and 395;
A trustee’s deed shown on pages 33 and 34 is duplicated on page 116 ;
A special warranty deed shown on pages 86 and 87 is duplicated on page 119’
An oil, gas and mineral lease shown on pagеs 22 and 23 is duplicated on page 161;
An oil, gas and mineral lease shown on pages 25, 26 and 27 is duplicated on page 162;
A deed shown on pages 82, 83, 84 and 85 is duplicated on page 164;
An extension agreement shown on pages 78 and 79 is duplicated on page 291.
In the cases of Masonite Corporation v. Guy,
It follows from what has been said that the motion of the appellants to retax the costs should be and the same is hereby sustained.
Motion to retax costs sustained.
