Court Opinion

ID: 9826093
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 15:21:07.236639+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:41:50.657344
License: Public Domain

*497Mr. Justice Fraser.

I concur in the result.

The transaction here originated in an application for a loan. There was a contract to convey and reconvey as a part of the same'transaction.
The law, as I understand it, is well stated in Pomeroy’s Eq. Jurisp., vol. III, page 171, sec. 1194:
“Where land is conveyed by an absolute deed and an instrument is given back as a part of the same transaction, not containing the conditions ordinarily inserted in mortgages, but being an agreement that the grantee will recon-vey the premises if the grantor shall pay a certain sum of money at or before a special time, the two taken together may be what on their face they purport to be — a mere sale with a contract of repurchase, or they may constitute a mortgage. In the first case, where the transaction is merely a sale and contract of repurchase, the agreement must be fulfilled according to its terms. If the grantor fails to pay the money at the stipulated time all his rights, either at law or in equity, under the contract are gone; there is no equity of redemption. In the second case, if the transaction be a mortgage, all the qualities and incidents of a mortgage attach, whatever be its external form, and whatever be the collateral stipulations. The maxim, once a mortgage, always a mortgage, applies to this condition with especial emphasis.”
It is sometimes a very nice question as to whether a contract to convey and a contract to reconvey, executed at the same time, is to be taken as an absolute conveyance, with a mere right to repurchase, or whether the two papers together constitute a mortgage. If Williams, from the first, had claimed that this transaction amounted to a mortgage, he may have had a cause which this Court could have sustained. He did not speak when he ought to have spoken, permitted himself to be turned out of possession and for eight months laid no claim to the place, and it seems to me that whatever doubts the Court may have had, are solved *498against him. Courts ought to construe contracts between parties to be what on their face they purported to be, and if otherwise, clear and convincing proof according to the strict rules of law must be furnished to show that they are not.
It seems to me that Williams’ conduct is inconsistent with the position of a mortgagor, and for this reason, I concur in the result.