Court Opinion

ID: 9570904
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:27:28.624722+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:21:06.096810
License: Public Domain

Lewis, Chief Justice
(dissenting) :
The complaint in this action sought foreclosure of the mortgage, sale of the premises, appointment of a receiver *344and such other relief as might be just and proper. There was no prayer for a personal judgment or for a deficiency judgment, and none was granted or provided for in the final decree of foreclosure. Instead, the decree required the successful bidder to comply with his bid within ten (10) days after the sale.
Although, as stated in the majority opinion, the bidding remained open for thirty days, such was not done under the foreclosure decree, but contrary to its specific provisions.
It is elementary that the right to a judgment must be determined with reference to the relief sought in the pleadings. A deficiency judgment is a personal judgment and a defendant is entitled to notice in the pleadings that it is sought. No personal judgment was sought or granted and there was, therefore, no basis upon which to grant a deficiency judgment.
The majority opinion announces, without limitation, that a deficiency judgment is “such an incident of mortgage foreclosure that it may be supported by a prayer for general relief.” Such a principle is, I respectfully submit, without support in our statutes or decisions. On the contrary, the case of McConnell v. Barnes, 142 S. C. 112, 140 S. E. 310 (cited in the majority opinion), demonstrates that it is customary for a mortgagee to pray for a deficiency judgment in his complaint if he desires to obtain such relief under Section 29-3-650 or 29-3-660, 1976 Code of Laws. At 140 S. E. 312, it is stated:
. . . after the passage of the act of 1791, which declared that the .fee to mortgaged property should continue in the mortgagor (the mortgagee having only a lien thereon), the change of the law created also a change in the practice, and that it became proper to include in a decree of foreclosure a direction to report the deficiency, after applying the proceeds of sale to the mortgage debt, and to then allow the mortgagee a judgment for the deficiency.
Later, the act of 1894 was passed [present Section 29-3-650], allowing the mortgagee, in the action of foreclosure, *345to include in the decree a personal judgment against the mortgagor for the amount of the mortgage debt; that judgment be entered up, constituting a lien upon all other real estate, and later to be credited with the net proceeds of the foreclosure sale. (Emphasis added.)
Each of the abovementioned procedures contemplates that the mortgagee has made a demand for deficiency which has been acknowledged by the court at the time of the decree directing foreclosure and sale.
A complaint which seeks only the foreclosure of the mortgage and sale of the premises is properly interpreted as seeking satisfaction of the debt solely from the security described in the mortgage. A defendant could default, under such a complaint, upon the assumption that no personal judgment was involved. It is not unreasonable to require a mortgagee, who seeks satisfaction of his debt beyond the security of the mortgage, to give notice in the foreclosure complaint that he demands a judgment against all of the mortgagee’s property. The present complaint fails completely to notify the defendant of any purpose on the part of the plaintiff to seek such relief.
The order of the lower court granting a deficiency judgment should be reversed.