Court Opinion

ID: 9442328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:43:59.543374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:03.812415
License: Public Domain

MURRAH, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring.
I agree that in these circumstances the appellant mortgagee is not chargeable with 3 per cent of the proceeds realized from the sale of the mortgaged property, and that the case must be reversed. But I cannot agree that the appellant should not be charged with what it would have cost him to enforce his remedy in the state forum.
As I read the cases cited in the opinion, they are to the effect that where a mortgagee merely acquiesces in the foreclosure of the mortgaged property, which is sold by the trustee in bankruptcy for an amount in excess of the mortgage, or where the assets of the estate in bankruptcy otherwise exceed the amount of the mortgaged indebtedness, the lienholders are chargeable only with what it would have cost them to enforce their liens outside the bankruptcy proceedings. See Remington on Bankruptcy, 4th Ed., Vol. 6, Sections 2610 and 2613. This rule, in my judgment, comports with equitable principles, and I would apply it here. If the mortgagee here had pursued hi® remedy in the Kansas courts, he would have undoubtedly recovered the full amount of the mortgage, including court costs. But, concededly, under Kansas law, a mortgagee must pay his own attorneys, even though the note and mortgage provide otherwise.
' It follows therefore that in any event, the mortgagee would have been required to pay a reasonable attorney’s fee for the foreclosure of the mortgage under appli*778cable Kansas law. In our case, the attorney for the trustee undoubtedly performed valuable services which redounded to the benefit of the mortgagee, and in my judgment, it should be chargeable with reasonable attorney’s fee for the same. I would therefore reverse the case with directions to ascertain and charge that amount against the mortgagee.