Case ID: vt_91/html/0172-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Ludlow Savings Bank & Trust Company v. Charles H. Knight.
    January Term, 1917.
    Present: Munson, C. J., Watson, Haselton, Powers, and Taylor', JJ.
    Opinion filed January 18, 1917.
    
      Appeals in Chancery — Foreclosure—P. S. 1307.
    
    Chancery appeals are a matter of statute and can he had only by force of the statute; and therefore an attempted appeal from a decree of foreclosure, without the permission of the chancellor, as provided in P. S. 1307, will be dismissed.
    An appeal from a decree of the court of chancery sustaining the assessment by the clerk of the sum due in equity upon the foreclosure of a real estate mortgage, is an appeal from a decree of foreclosure within the meaning of P. S. 1307.
    Petition to foreclose a mortgage upon real estate. Heard in vacation after the June Term, 1916, Windsor County, Slack, Chancellor, on appeal from the assessment by the clerk of the amount due in equity under the mortgage. Decree, sustaining the assessment. The defendant moved for an appeal, but permission therefor was not given by the chancellor. In Supreme Court the petitioner moved to dismiss the attempted appeal.
    
      William W. Stickney, John G. Sargent and Homer L. Skeels for petitioner.
    
      Mwrvelle C. Webber for defendant.
   Per Curiam.

The plaintiff brought a petition in chancery therein seeking to foreclose a mortgage covering premises on which defendant held a second mortgage. The defendant seasonably entered his appearance therein, but did not make answer or file an affidavit of defence. Ch. Rule 38. In due course, the petition was taken as confessed, and the sum due in equity was found by the clerk. From this assessment the defendant appealed to the chancellor. The assessment was sustained and a decree made accordingly. The defendant seasonably filed his motion for an appeal, but the chancellor did not grant permission therefor. The plaintiff files a motion to dismiss this attempted appeal.

Chancery appeals are a matter of statute, and it is only by force of the statute that such an appeal can be had. Gove v. Gove’s Adm’r, 87 Vt. 468, 89 Atl. 868. By the express terms of P. S. 1307, an appeal from a decree of foreclosure can only be had by permission of the court. And this is an appeal or at^ tempted appeal from a decree of foreclosure, though the only controversy is over the sum due in equity. But this fact does not change the character of the decree. To hold otherwise would be to nullify the plain and positive terms of the statute. The case is not here, but remains in the court of chancery. Abbott v. Sanders, 83 Vt. 165, 74 Atl. 1058; Tudor v. Kennett, 88 Vt. 291, 92 Atl. 213.

Appeal dismissed, with costs.