Knabb v. Mabry

• Decision Date: 05 May 1939
• Citation: 188 So. 586,137 Fla. 530
• Parties: KNABB et al. v. MABRY et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

188 So. 586

137 Fla. 530

KNABB et al. v. MABRY et al.

Florida Supreme Court

May 5, 1939

En Banc.

Proceeding by Giddings E. Mabry and othes against L. Knabb and others to have lien declared upon property. From decree in favor of complainants, defendants appeal.

Affirmed. Appeal from Circuit Court, Baker County; A. Z Adkins, Judge.

COUNSEL

William D. Morgan and H. L. Anderson, both of Jacksonville, for appellants.

Mabry Reaves, Carlton & White, of Tampa, for appellees.

OPINION

BROWN Justice.

This is an appeal from a final decree rendered by the Circuit Court in and for Baker County on March 14, 1938. The decree found the equities to be with the complainants and held that they were entitled to a lien upon the lands described in the bill for the amount of a certain sum due them for their services rendered as attorneys in a certain foreclosure suit described in the bill of complaint, in which foreclosure suit the Chicago Trust Company, the plaintiff therein purchased at Master's sale, for the sum of $50,000 the property involved. In said foreclosure decree, it was adjudged and decreed that there was due the complainants the sum of $96,355.98 principal and interest, together with the further sum of $270 costs and the further sum of $9,662.59 attorneys fees. Said sums were decreed to be a lien upon said mortgaged property, and ordered the property to be sold after due advertisement, to the highest bidder, and out of the proceeds thereof should be paid, first the costs of court including the said fees allowed the solicitors for their services; second, the amount adjudged and decreed to be due the complainants, with interest; third, that any surplus should be paid into the registry of the court to abide the further order of the court.

The amended bill in the instant case, which was in substance the same as the original bill, alleged that the amount called for in the decree was not paid and that the lands were duly advertised for sale and sold by the special master appointed in said decree for that purpose and at said sale were bid in by the attorneys for the defendant in the instant case, the Chicago Trust Company, acting at its request, for the sum of $50,000. That said sum was not paid, but the purchaser paid the costs, including the master's fee, and paid to complainants towards their solicitors' fees the sum of $2,000, and advised complainants that it was purchasing said property as trustee for the estate of Walter E. Flanders, for whom it, the Chicago Trust Company, was acting as co-complainant in said foreclosure, and that the said estate was short of funds at that particular time but that said Chicago Trust Company would pay the unpaid portion of the fees so adjudged and decreed to be paid to complainants within a short time. That relying upon this, complainants procured a confirmation of said sale to the Chicago Trust Company and a Master's deed to be made and recorded conveying said property to said Trust Company, one of the complainants in said suit. That said Trust Company acquired the title to said lands by virtue of the Master's sale charged with the obligation to pay the attorneys fees therein described and that said amount is and should be a first charge on said lands.

It is further alleged that the Chicago Trust Company was succeeded by Central Republic Trust Company, which acquired all rights and assumed all obligations of the Chicago Trust Company in so far as they relate to the lands and obligations herein described, including the obligation in behalf of complainants; that the Central Republic Trust Company afterwards went into the hands of receivers and Charles Albers was duly appointed receiver of said Trust Company and was acting as such at the time the amended bill was filed. It is further averred that complainants have long been entitled of right and of equity to payment for their said services and are now entitled to payment for the same out of the lands described in the bill, which comprised some 31,000 acres of land in Baker County; that the work in question was undertaken by complainants with the understanding with said Trust Company that the property involved in said suit would be responsible for the payment of fees for complainants, and prayed that the court adjudge and decree that the defendants hold the title to said lands as Trustees for the benefit of complainants to the extent of the indebtedness therein described, charged with the duty and obligation to pay complainants said sum with interest and that said amount be decreed a first lien on said property subject only to taxes and that the defendants, Chicago Trust Company, Central Republic Trust Company and Charles H. Albers, as Receiver for Central Republic Trust Company, be ordered to pay the same by a short day named by this Court and that failing to pay the same the said property be ordered and decreed to be sold by a Special Master to be named by the court, or so much thereof as is necessary to pay the said sum due to complainants together with the costs of said proceedings.

On motion of L. Knabb, he was permitted by the court to intervene and be joined as party defendant in said cause. Motions to dismiss the bill of complaint were interposed and denied.

The original defendants filed an answer in which they alleged that they had no interest in the property other than as Trustees and Successor Trustees respectively under the will of Walter E. Flanders. In this answer these defendants alleged that the claim did not accrue within three years of the commencement of plaintiff's action, was barred by the statute of limitations and that the plaintiffs were guilty of laches in prosecuting the claim.

The defendant L. Knabb filed an answer in which he claimed he was a bona fide purchaser for value of the title, both real and equitable, of the defendants, Chicago Trust Company and Central Republic Trust Company, the two Trust Companies above named, as trustees under the will of Walter E. Flanders, and Central Republic Trust Company successor by consolidation to Chicago Trust Company in the property described in the plaintiffs bill of complaint, and that at the time of making said purchase, he had no notice either actual or constructive of any claim of the plaintiffs against said property.

Defendant Knabb further alleged that in December, 1931, the Central Republic Bank and Trust Company as Trustee under the will of Walter E. Flanders executed a note in the sum of $90,000 which pledged the land described in plaintiffs' bill of complaint for the prompt payment thereof and that another note was executed in January, 1932 by said defendant in the sum of $19,330.00, of the same tenor as the first, and that both of said notes had been assigned to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. That this defendant in July, 1936, agreed to purchase said notes from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and paid a part of the purchase price of the same, and that he is now and has since been in possession of said lands and that at the time of said purchase he had no notice of plaintiffs' claim. Further that he had paid all outstanding taxes against that property, except for the year 1931, up to date. Also that plaintiffs were guilty of laches in that their claim was filed in 1927 and no further action was taken thereon until 1936. That said answer further alleged that plaintiffs' cause of action was based upon an oral promise to pay for work during the year 1927 and that the cause of action did not accrue within three years of the commencement of plaintiffs' suit. Further that the Chicago Trust Company had no right or authority to bind the estate of Walter E. Flanders for said attorneys' fees or to make the property of said estate subject to a lien therefor.

In April 1937 the complainants filed their amendment to the bill of complaint as amended in 1936 in which they alleged that on October 29, 1928, the Chicago Trust Company had entered into a...