Hargreaves v. Korcek
Decision Date | 05 April 1895 |
Parties | HARGREAVES ET AL. v. KORCEK ET UX. |
Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
1. Threats of prosecution and immediate imprisonment of the husband, when used to induce a man and his wife to execute and deliver a mortgage upon their homestead to secure the payment of a judgment against him, where the threats so overcome their wills as to induce them to affix their signatures to such mortgage, and thus give a security which they would not voluntarily have executed, are sufficient to constitute duress, and avoid the operation of the instrument so obtained.
2. The evidence examined, and held sufficient to support the findings and decree of the district court.
Appeal from district court, Buffalo county; Holcomb, Judge.
Action by Alfred E. Hargreaves and another against Ludwig Korcek and wife to foreclose a mortgage. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.Tibbets, Morey & Ferris, for appellants.
Oldham & Murphy and Dryden & Main, for appellees.
The appellants commenced an action in the district court of Buffalo county against the appellees to foreclose a mortgage on real estate, alleging, in substance, that on the 11th day of July, 1889, appellants obtained a judgment against Ludwig Korcek in said district court for the sum of $1,093.48, and on the 12th day of July, 1889, Ludwig Korcek and his wife, Mary, for the purpose of securing the payment of the indebtedness evidenced by the judgment, executed and delivered to appellants a mortgage deed, conveying to them the S. 1/2 of the S. W. 1/4 of section 10, township 9 N., of range 15 W., in Buffalo county, Neb.; that by the terms of the mortgage the judgment was to be paid July 10, 1890. There was an allegation of default in the condition of the mortgage in regard to payment. It was also pleaded that certain persons and firms had, or claimed to have, judgment liens upon the premises described in the mortgage, “and plaintiffs allege that such judgments are not liens upon the above-described premises, for the reason that said Ludwig Korcek is a married man, and the head of a family, and with his said wife, Mary Korcek, occupies and holds said premises as their homestead, and the same are of a less value than $2,000.” The petition closed with a prayer for foreclosure, deficiency judgment, etc. To this petition various judgment and other creditors of Ludwig Korcek filed answer, each setting up a claim, and praying such relief as was deemed appropriate in the particular instance by the pleader.
It appears that Ludwig Korcek had been in mercantile business in Kearney, Neb., for a number of years, and just prior to the execution of the mortgage, the basis of this action, disposed of his stock of merchandise and the business; that the judgment recovered by appellants against Ludwig Korcek, which the mortgage was given to secure, was for the amount of an account in their favor for merchandise sold to him. Korcek's sale of his stock of merchandise was, he alleges, used by appellants as the foundation for the threats which were made by appellants to obtain the execution of the mortgage in suit in the case at bar. This statement will serve to explain the reference in that portion of the answer of appellees quoted herein to the sale of the stock of merchandise. The Korceks filed separate answers, and subsequently filed an answer in which they joined, and which was treated as an amended answer, in which they admitted the indebtedness of Ludwig Korcek to the appellants in some amount, the rendering of the judgment, the execution of the mortgage, that appellees were husband and wife, the homestead character of the premises described in the petition, and their residence thereon, but denied that Mary Korcek was indebted to appellants in any sum, or in any manner. They further answered as follows: There were some other allegations contained in the answer, but we need not consider them here. The prayer of the answer was that the mortgage be declared null and void and canceled of record. The reply filed by appellants was a general denial of all new matter contained in the amended answer. A trial to the court of the issues between the appellants and the Korceks resulted in a finding in favor of the Korceks, and a decree declaring the mortgage null and void, and ordering its cancellation, and the plaintiffs in the district court have appealed to this court.
There was a sharp and decided conflict in the testimony adduced with reference to what was said by the various persons who were present at the home of the Korceks on the day when the mortgage to appellants was executed, but there was ample evidence to support the finding of the trial court, and, following the well-established rule of this court, the finding will not be disturbed. It remains, then, to determine whether the Korceks were under duress at the time they signed and delivered the mortgage. The parties who represented appellants drove from Kearney to Korcek's farm, where they arrived about 9 or 10 o'clock in the forenoon, and remained until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, being, the greater portion of the time they were there, engaged in endeavoring to obtain the execution of the mortgage, and which they finally accomplished. They took with them from Kearney a law book,--the Statutes,--and now, being guided in our statements mainly by the evidence which must have been followed by the trial court to reach the conclusion which it did, soon after they reached the farm some law was read from this book to the Korceks, and the husband was informed that he had committed a crime, and, unless he signed the mortgage, he would go to the penitentiary; and in Korcek's testimony we find the following: ...
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