Court Opinion

ID: 9810641
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:55:07.61575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:40:07.870367
License: Public Domain

Glare, J.
(dissenting): The defendant, whose land was advertised for sale under a mortgage, tendered the creditor’s attorney “all that was due and all costs.” The attorney refused to take this unless the mortgagor would in addition pay his fee. This not being done, he sold the land, the plaintiff bought and brings this action for ejectment.
The question presented is whether this tender discharged the lien — not the debt — for if it did not discharge the mortgage a purchaser at a sale thus made under it would acquire *9a good title and mortgagors in such cases would be at the mercy of tbe exaction of the creditor or his counsel. This not only would subject mortgagors to a liability to be thus squeezed rather than bear the annoyance and additional cost of a sale under the mortgage with payment of the commission to the trustee for selling — of itself often a considerable burden — but frequently the exaction would be submitted to rather than lose the opportunity of a private sale to a party who might buy the land if disencumbered.
If a tender by the mortgagor of the full amount due will not discharge the lien but the acceptance thereof by the mortgagee is necessary to have that effect, then the mortgagor by declining to receive the payment can (as in this case) add to the lien, by his own.wrongful act, the costs of the sale and the commission for selling, unless he is minded to waive an actual sale by receiving payment of the sum the commissions would amount to in addition to the sum justly due. As the parties can stipulate fcr the rate of commission for selling, this would simply repeal the usury law and give the mortgagee a safe and sure mode of collecting his illegal rate of interest.
It is true that in the present case the purchaser at the sale was the holder of the mortgage and recognizing that he could not recover in ejectment under a pirrchase at a sale made under these circumstances, he changed front on the trial and asked for a decree of foreclosure instead of a judgment for possession. But the principle involved is the same, and the single question presented is whether a tender of the full amount due on the mortgage with all cost is a discharge of the lien. The hardship which would result from holding that it would not, is such as must be apparent to a court of equity which looks to all possibilities of oppression. There are no direct precedents in this State, but the overwhelming weight of authority elsewhere is that *10such tender in full would discharge the lien, leaving of course the debt still valid. The carefully written American and English Encyclopedia which puts into its text the prevailing and better doctrine, citing the minority decisions in the note, thus states the generally accepted doctrine: “A tender of the full amount of a debt secured by a mortgage or pledge discharges the lien of the mortgage or pledge. According to the current of authority the lien is extinguished, though tender is not made until after default. It is not necessary, in order to effect a release, that the tender should be kept good.or that the mouey should be paid into court.” 25 Am. & Eng. Enc., 927, 929. This is sustained in the notes by citation of a great number of authorities, especially from courts of such standing as those of New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and others, citing also the very few decisions to the contrary. To the same purport is section 893, 1 Jones on Mortgages (5th. Ed.), which says, citing authorities, “The rule in several States is that a tender of the amount due on a mortgage after the day fixed for payment is a discharge of the lien just as much as payment is, and in the same way that a tender at common lawr, made upon the day named in the condition, has this effect. The lien of the mortgage is thereby ipso facto discharged, and the holder of the mortgage can only look to the personal responsibility of the person liable for the mortgage debt. To have this effect it is not even necessary that the money should be. brought into court or that it should be shown that the tender has ever since been kept good.” It is not necessary here to cite the authorities which are there quoted to sustain the text, but. in Kortwright v. Cady, 21 N. Y., 343, will be found an unusually able and full opinion showing that this was the doctrine of the common law and that it is fully sustained by authority and reason.
*11.Not only is this doctrine supported by- the weight of precedent and considerations of equity and public policy, but it is the actual contract between the parties. This, in the usual form, provides “if the said amount shall be paid, then this mortgage shall be null and void; otherwise it shall remain in full force and effect. ” "When the mortgagor, as in this case, tenders the “ full amount due with all cost” he has in equity done all that he can do and the mortgage lien becomes null and void by the terms of the contract. By its very condition this is so. It is otherwise as to the debt itself. There is no condition as to that. That is absolutely dire and remains due till the money is accepted. The ténder can only, at most, stop the running of the interest. There is no hardship in this as there would be in continuing in force a mortgage or other lien after tender made, with the effect of hampering any other disposition of the property or forcing the mortgagor to pay the commission and cost of a sale to prevent the property going into the hands of a purchaser who would acquire a good title at such sale if the tender does not discharge the lien. Of course ingenious reasons can be given by counsel, based upon subtle distinctions, to the contrary, and some decisions can be found also to sustain that view, but when every cent due, principal and interest and costs, is tendered the mortgagee, he ought not in good conscience be allowed, against the very terms of his contract, to maintain his lien nevertheless in full force with the opportunity this gives of exacting (as was demanded in this case) additional suras to buy that release which he is entitled to have upon tender of the full amount due.
So much of the judgment as adjudges recovery against the debtor for the principal money, with interest and costs up to the time of the tender should be affirmed. Neither party excepted to this. But so much of the judgment as *12directed. a foreclosure and sale notwithstanding the full tender made should be reversed. By such tender the condition of the mortgage was fulfilled as fully as the mortgagor was permitted by the mortgagee to do so, and the lien was discharged by the terms of the'mortgage.
MONTGOMERY. J., concurs in the dissenting opinion.