Court Opinion

ID: 9688378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:44:51.003836+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:37.916273
License: Public Domain

Alexander, J.
(dissenting).
The majority opinion adopts a rule which concededly is not unjust and which is in line with the majority of the courts. The trouble here is that it is out of accord with Witczinski v. Everman, 51 Miss. 841. This case has been cited as authority in cases which have followed it. It is cited several times in Jones on Mortgages, 8th Edition, as an example of the minority rule, and I think this treatise correctly interprets it as holding that a mortgage to secure future advances includes any advances made by the mortgagee during the life of the mortgage, whether he was obligated thereunto or not. It also accurately interprets the decision as making immaterial whether the first mortgagee has actual knowledge of the execution of a junior incumbrance or a subsequent sale of the mortgage property. Jones on Mortgages, 8th Edition, Sections 447, 452, 454, 455, 457.
*302If the Court desires to adopt the rule , announced, it seems to me that there should he a forthright overruling of the Witczinski case. I would, therefore, be in a position to concur in the result reached were it not for mv conviction that it involves a departure from our former decision upon the subject, and since I do not believe that the Witczinski case ought to be overruled, but that this has at least impliedly been done, I cannot consistently join in the majority opinion.
The effect of our holding is that although a prior mortgagee has taken security for the making of future advances and retained both such security and the right to make such advances, a junior incumbrance may at will cut off such right and take over the security as a prior lien. As stated in the Witczinski case, the junior mortgagee “is duly advised of the right of the (prior) mortgagee by the terms of the mortgage to hold the mortgage property as security to him for such indebtedness as may accrue to him”. It is further stated that “if it contains enough to show a contract that it is to stand as a security to the mortgagee for such indebtedness as may arise from future dealings between the parties, it is sufficient to put a purchaser or incumbrancer on inquiry, and, if he fails to make it in the proper quarter, he cannot claim protection as a bona fide purchaser.” (Emphasis ours).