Levis v. Kengla

• Decision Date: 21 February 1898
• Docket Number: No. 173,173
• Parties: LEVIS v. KENGLA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

169 U.S. 234

18 S.Ct. 309

42 L.Ed. 728

LEVIS

v KENGLA.

No. 173.

February 21, 1898.

Henry E. Davis, for appellant.

J. Holdsworth Gordon, for appellee.

Mr. Justice GRAY delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a bill in equity, filed by the mortgagor of land in the District of Columbia, more than fifteen years after the sale and conveyance of the land under a power in the mortgage, to redeem the land and to enforce a trust therein.

The supreme court of the District of Columbia, after a hearing upon pleadings and proofs, dismissed the bill, and its decree was affirmed by the court of appeals. 8 App. D. C. 230. The plaintiff appealed to this court.

The following facts were either admitted or clearly proved: Philip Levis, being the owner of the land, on October 29, 1875, made a first mortgage thereof to trustees to secure the payment of his note to one Clokey for $2,000, payable in three years, with interest at the annual rate of 10 per cent., and on May 13, 1876, made a second mortgage to one Weaver, as trustee, to secure the payment of a promissory note to Charles R. Kengla and George M. Kengla for $300, payable in one year, with like interest. Under this second mortgage, default having been made in the payment of the $300 note, the land was advertised for sale 'subject to a prior trust of $2,000,' and on October 29, 1877, was accordingly sold by auction, and was bought by the two Kenglas for the sum of $1,000 subject to the first mortgage for $2,000. The plaintiff remained in possession of the land for about a year after the sale, and then removed upon notice from the Kenglas to quit, and they have ever since remained in possession. On January 17, 1878, Weaver, as trustee under the second mortgage, conveyed the land to the Kenglas, in accordance with the terms of the sale, and received from them the price of $1,000. On May 26, 1879, the Kenglas, with the knowledge of Levis, sold and conveyed part of the land to one Hume for the sum of $2,756.89. Levis never claimed any interest in the land, after the conveyance to the Kenglas on January 17, 1878, until he filed the original bill in this case against them on March 29, 1893.

In the bill, the plaintiff alleged that, when the land was put up for sale by auction on October 29, 1877, there being present no bidders nor any persons interested in the purchase of the property except the defendants, the threatened sale was objected to by the plaintiff, and was only permitted to be made, without protest, upon an oral statement by the defendants that they only desired to obtain out of the property the amount of the incumbrances thereon, and that, if he would permit them to go through the form of a sale, they would take and hold the property for his benefit, and would reconvey it to him, or so much thereof as was left after sufficient...