Snyder v. Greaves

• Decision Date: 16 February 1891
• Citation: 21 A. 291
• Parties: SNYDER v. GREAVES.
• Court: New Jersey Court of Chancery

21 A. 291

SNYDER

v. GREAVES.

Court of Chancery of New Jersey.

Feb. 16, 1891.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Bill for specific performance.

F. F. Hogate, for complainant.

J. H. Hoagland, for defendant.

BIRD, V. C. This case, as developed by the pleadings and the testimony, shows that on the 23d of October, 1880, the complainant's mother, then being the owner of the premises in question, gave a mortgage to the defendant, Greaves, for $4,000, to secure a bond conditioned for the payment of that sum, and upon the same day gave another bond to one Harrison to secure the payment of $1,000. In the month of May, 1882, application was made to the defendant, Greaves, on behalf of Mrs. Snyder, the then owner of the premises, for permission to foreclose the said mortgage so held by him, for the purpose, as avowed by her, of cutting off Harrison's claim by selling the property under such foreclosure proceedings. Greaves handed his bond and mortgage to the person making the application therefor, and foreclosure proceedings thereupon were carried forward to a decree and a sale. The complainants urge that before the sale, and on the day of the sale, it was agreed between the mother and Greaves that he should bid off the property for a small consideration, and that Mrs. Snyder would pay the sheriff's costs and execution fees, and that he. after securing the title from the sheriff, would execute to her a deed for the premises upon her executing to him a mortgage for the whole amount of principal and interest due to him upon the said decree. Enough is admitted by Greaves to make it very clear that an agreement of some kind with respect to this transaction was entered into between the complainant's mother and him, but he emphatically denies that he was to execute to her the deed of conveyance for the premises, and to accept a new mortgage for the whole amount of principal and interest due to him upon said decree. He said that he did agree to bid upon the said premises, and to take the title from the sheriff, and to hold the same for her, but not to make a reconveyance upon her giving a mortgage, but to hold the title therefor until she could pay to him the whole amount due to him upon the said decree, upon her doing which he promised to convey the title to the said premises to her. The property was advertised for sale by the sheriff under the writ issued upon the said decree. At the sale it was purchased by Greaves for $1,000, to whom the sheriff afterwards executed a deed of conveyance therefor. The sheriff's execution fees, about $52, were paid by Mrs. Snyder. About the 1st of April next ensuing, (1883,) Mrs. Snyder paid to Greaves $250, which, by a receipt, he acknowledged to be for interest due. The amount of principal due upon the said decree at that time was $4,691.22. About the 1st of April, 1884, Mrs. Snyder offered to pay a like amount of interest to Greaves, but he refused to accept it. The complainant says the reason he refused to accept it was because he then claimed to be the owner of the premises. Taking the testimony of the complainant. it is really very difficult to discover any substantial grounds for a specific performance of a contract of the nature insisted upon, because of its incomplete or imperfect character. The case is put most strongly against the defendant by Mr. Hogate, the solicitor and counsel of Mr. Greaves in the foreclosure proceedings, but now the solicitor and counsel of the complainants. He was sworn as a witness, and, among other things, stated an interview between himself and the complainant in the foreclosure proceedings, Mr. Greaves, before the sale of the premises under the...