Case Name: THE CITIZENS' SAVINGS BANK v. PHOEBE IDE
Court: Franklin County Circuit Court
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1898-01
Citations: 20 Ohio C.C. 665
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE CITIZENS’ SAVINGS BANK v. PHOEBE IDE.
Judges: Before Shearer, Summers and Wilson, JJ.
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the circuit courts of Ohio
Volume: 20
Pages: 665–666

Head Matter:
(Second Circuit—Franklin Co., O., Circ’t Court
Jan. Term, 1898.)
Before Shearer, Summers and Wilson, JJ.
THE CITIZENS’ SAVINGS BANK v. PHOEBE IDE.
Construction placed on Statutes for fifty years not to be disturbed—
(1). A construction placed on a statute by the bench and bar for more than half a century should not be disturbed.
Foreclosure suit after death of mortgagor may be brought in common pleas—
(2). A mortgagee may institute a foreclosure suit against a deceased mortgagor in the court of common pleas, making the heirs, administrator or executor and lienholders parties, and is not obliged to work out his rights in the probate court through the administrator or executor.
Appeal from the court of Common Pleas of Franklin county.
In this case plaintiff brought a suit in foreclosure, and simple, making no claim' for a money judgment, in the common pleas court. The administrator demurred on the ground th.at the common pleas court had no jurisdiction, and contended that as in case of assignments, the rights of the mortgagee must be worked out through the administrator in the probate court. In the common pleas the demurrer was overruled, and a decree of foreclosure was entered; from which tho administrator appealed to the circuit court.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The question in this case is whether, where a person executes a mortgage on real estate and dies, the mortgagee can bring and maintain a suit, a foreclosure suit, in the common pleas, making heirs, administrators, executors and lien -holders defendants, or is compelled to work out his rights through the executor or administrator in the probate court.
The circuit court holds that he can'bring and maintain foreclosure in the common pleas. There is nothing in the claims of the administrator in this case which requires a construction of section 6108, Revised Statutes, different from what has been placed upon it by the courts and the profession for more than half a century. Public policy, if no other consideration, requires that a'construction so long accepted and acquiesced in should not be disturbed.