Case Name: Julia M. De Forest, Resp't, v. Theodore G. Peck et al., Impleaded, etc., App'lts
Court: New York Supreme Court, General Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1895-02-11
Citations: 65 N.Y. St. Rep. 611
Docket Number: 
Parties: Julia M. De Forest, Resp’t, v. Theodore G. Peck et al., Impleaded, etc., App’lts.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York State Reporter
Volume: 65
Pages: 611–613

Head Matter:
Julia M. De Forest, Resp’t, v. Theodore G. Peck et al., Impleaded, etc., App’lts.
(Supreme Court, General Term, Second Department,
Filed February 11, 1895.)
Mortgage—Subrogation.
An order, allowing a junior mortgagee, in an action to foreclose the prior mortgage on land as to which an action for partition was pending, to pay off the mortgage and subrogate himself to the lien thereof, on condition that he await the judgment in the partition action, does not prejudice a judgment creditor, who desires to be subrogated in order to force a present sale.
Appeal from an order, subrogating a junior mortgagee to the lien of the plaintiff’s mortgage.
Alonzo Wheeler (William W. Green, of counsel), for app’lts; Irving Brown, for resp’t.

Opinion:
Cullen, J.
This is an appeal by Theodore Gr. Peck and others, defendants, from an order made by the special term directing the plaintiff to assign to J. Harsen Halsted, also a defendant, the bond and mortgage the subject of the judgment of foreclosure made in this action. The appellants have no standing to object to the order, so far e\s it directed an assignment of the bond and mortgage and the judgment thereon. The plaintiff does not appeal. As she could have assigned the mortgage and judgment without the order of the court, and without the consent and against the wishes of the appellants, the appellants cannot assert her rights on this appeal. The appellants can have but one cause of complaint, and that is that the court did not order them to be subrogated to the rights of the plaintiff instead of the defendant Halsted. The question as to which of the parties should obtain the subrogation depended, not only on the situation of the parties, but also on their respective intents Or purposes in acquiring the judgment. The appellants are part owners of the mortgaged premises, and judgment creditors of another part owner, John Peek. Halsted is the holder of a mortgage on John Peck's interest subsequent to the lien of the appellants' judgment, and is the husband of another part owner. The mortgaged premises are a part of a large tract of land owned by the defendants as tenants in common, for the partition of which an action is now pending. Halsted asked for the subrogation, that he might prevent a sale under foreclosure, and it was awarded him on condition that he should not sell, but await the judgment in the partition suit. The appellants sought subrogation, that they might force a present sale. The claim is made on their part that they are prepared to bid on the property, and that by a sale under foreclosure they can collect their judgment out of the share of John Peck in the surplus moneys more readily and advantageously than by sale on execution. We are at a loss to discover any equity in this claim. Judgments of foreclosure are granted to enforce payment of the mortgages foreclosed. They are solely for the benefit of the plaintiff, not for that of the defendant. The statute prescribes the rights and _ remedies of judgment creditors, and such creditors have no claim to other or more desirable remedies than the statute and the law give. The right of tenants in common is to have their shares set off, or the land sold in a partition suit; that of judgment creditors is to an execution sale. Neither have any right or equity to have a prior general mortgage foreclosed because it may be "deemed more conovenient to deal with the surplus moneys arising on the sale than with the land itself. The order appealed from should be affirmed, with $10 costs and disbursements.
Pratt, J., concurs.