Becker v. Minber Corp.

• Decision Date: 01 February 1940
• Docket Number: 15.
• Citation: 10 A.2d 707,177 Md. 583
• Parties: BECKER v. MINBER CORPORATION et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

10 A.2d 707

177 Md. 583

BECKER v. MINBER CORPORATION et al.

No. 15.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

February 1, 1940

Appeal from Circuit Court of Baltimore City; W. Conwell Smith Judge.

Suit for the specific performance of a sale of certain leasehold property by the Minber Corporation, a Maryland corporation and another, against Deana Becker, formerly Deana Samorodin. From a decree for the plaintiffs, defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

Israel S. Gomborov, of Baltimore (A. David Gomborov and Estelle W Gomborov, both of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.

H. H. Walker Lewis and C. Edward Jones, both of Baltimore, for appellees.

Argued before BOND, C.J., and OFFUTT, PARKE, SLOAN, MITCHELL, JOHNSON, and DELAPLAINE, JJ.

PARKE, Judge.

The bill of complaint in the cause at bar was brought by the vendor for the specific performance of a sale of certain leasehold property in Baltimore City to the vendee who refuses to comply with the contract of sale on the ground that the title to the property is not good and merchantable. The sole defect of title assigned is asserted to have arisen in the mortgage foreclosure proceedings under which the vendor acquired title. The mortgage deed contained the declaration by the mortgagor of his assent to the passage of decree for the sale of the mortgaged premises as is contemplated by the local law in force in Baltimore City with reference to the foreclosure of mortgages of real and personal property situated in that municipality. Charter and Public Local Laws of Baltimore City, 1938 ed., secs. 845 855, pp. 456-474. By this local statutory provision, it is enacted that, when the mortgagor has declared his assent by the mortgage instrument, it shall be lawful for the mortgagee or his assigns at any time after filing the same to be recorded, to submit to either of the Circuit Courts of Baltimore City the said conveyances or copies thereof under seal of the Superior Court; and the Circuit Court to which the same is so submitted may forthwith decree that the mortgaged premises shall be sold at any one of the periods limited in the conveyances for the forfeiture of said mortgages or limited for a default of the mortgagors, and on such terms of sale as the court may deem proper, and shall appoint by said decree a trustee or trustees for making such sale, and shall require bond and security for the performance of the trust as is usual in cases of sales of mortgaged premises.

The clerk of court is required to file and record said decrees and docket the cases of the application for this relief; and in the decree, and to be recorded therewith, to file a copy of the mortgage upon which the decree was rendered. Supra.

In the present case, all the statutory provisions are shown to have been fulfilled for a decree as thus authorized, and there is no question of the regularity of the subsequent proceedings whereby a duly appointed and qualified trustee, in the administration of his trust, sold the mortgaged premises, reported the sale to the court, and, after final ratification in due course of the sale, and upon the receipt of the purchase money, regularly conveyed to the purchase, who is the vendor in the proceedings brought before the court on this record, the mortgaged leasehold property.

The purchaser at the foreclosure sale later, by contract, sold to the vendee the leasehold estate thus acquired. The only ground on which the vendee refuses to comply with his contract of purchase is the failure of the assignee of mortgagee, who took title under mesne assignments, to file with the original mortgage deed, either the deeds of assignment or their certified copies which were in the chain of title under which the assignee became vested in the mortgage claim and security and entitled after default, to sell the mortgaged premises. The short assignments authorized by statute were patently written on the original mortgage deed but the four assignments by formal and separate deeds of...