National Ben-Franklin Fire Ins. Co. v. Camden Trust Co.

• Decision Date: 01 December 1954
• Docket Number: No. C--223,BEN-FRANKLIN,C--223
• Citation: 33 N.J.Super. 340,110 A.2d 152
• Parties: NATIONALFIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Pennsylvania corporation, and Mercury Insurance Company, a Minnesota corporation, Plaintiffs, v. CAMDEN TRUST COMPANY, a corporation organized under the Banking Laws of NewJersey, as successor trustee under an indenture of mortgage, and AssociatedRealties Corporation, a New Jersey corporation, Defendants. . Chancery Division
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court

Page 340

33 N.J.Super. 340

110 A.2d 152

NATIONAL BEN-FRANKLIN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, a Pennsylvania corporation, and Mercury Insurance Company, a Minnesota corporation, Plaintiffs, v. CAMDEN TRUST COMPANY, a corporation organized under the Banking Laws of NewJersey, as successor trustee under an indenture of mortgage, and AssociatedRealties Corporation, a New Jersey corporation, Defendants.

No. C--223.

Superior Court of New Jersey Chancery Division.

Dec. 1, 1954.

William T. Wachenfeld, Newark, for plaintiffs (Lum, Fairlie & Foster, Newark, attorneys).

James N. Butler, Atlantic City, for defendants (Moore, Butler & McGee, Atlantic City, attorneys).

HANEMAN, J.S.C.

Defendants herein move to dismiss the complaint filed upon the ground, among other reasons, that 'said complaint shows upon its face no grounds for the relief therein demanded.'

It appears that the complaint, as herein filed, seeks a declaratory judgment under N.J.S.A. 2A:16--50 et seq. of a certain assignment of interest in a mortgage by the defendant Camden Trust Company, trustee, to the plaintiffs. This assignment was occasioned by virtue of a judgment rendered in a matter entitled Camden Trust Company, Trustee v. National Ben-Franklin Fire Insurance Company, a corporation of Pennsylvania, and Mercury Insurance Company, a corporation of Minnesota, New Jersey (Law Div., Docket No. L--192--50). The judgment as far as here pertinent, reads as follows 'It is, on this 19th day of July, 1951, Ordered and Adjudged that plaintiff have judgment against the defendant National Ben-Franklin Fire Insurance Company in the sum of $8,133.51, with interest from August 31, 1950, and that the plaintiff have judgment against the defendant Mercury Insurance Company for the sum of $2,623.70, with interest from August 31, 1950, and that each of said defendants pay to the plaintiff one-half of the cost of this proceeding; and

'It is Further Ordered and Adjudged that the defendants are entitled to receive from the plaintiff an assignment of an interest in the plaintiff's bond and mortgage to the extent of the payments respectively made by each defendant, and that the rights of the defendants in said assignment and in said bond and mortgage shall be equal as between themselves; but that said assignment in plaintiff's bond and mortgage shall be junior in lien and right of collection to the rights of the plaintiff therein.'

Said assignment made pursuant to said judgment reads, in part, as follows:

'But Provided that the rights of the parties hereto are subject to the conditions set forth in a certain judgment entered in the cause in the New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, Atlantic County, having Docket No. L--192--50, wherein the Camden Trust Company, Trustee, is the plaintiff, and the National Ben-Franklin Fire Insurance Company and Mercury Insurance Company are the defendants, which said judgment was entered on the 19th day of July, 1951.'

Plaintiffs allege that the bonds secured by said mortgage are now in default as to payments of both principal and interest under the terms of said mortgage, and that they have claimed, pursuant to the terms of the above referred to assignment and judgment, that they are entitled to the rights and status of bondholders under said mortgage, but that the defendant Camden Trust Company, trustee, has refused to recognize them as bondholders.

Plaintiffs therefore seek to have this court determine whether they have the status of bondholders.

At the outset, it must be self-evident that the plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment in connection with a judgment rendered in the Law Division of the Superior Court. Not only do they demand a construction of said...