Southern Building & Loan Ass'n v. Rodgers

• Decision Date: 18 April 1900
• Citation: 58 S.W. 234
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
• Parties: SOUTHERN BUILDING & LOAN ASS'N v. RODGERS et al. HAWKINS v. SAME.

58 S.W. 234

SOUTHERN BUILDING & LOAN ASS'N v. RODGERS et al.

HAWKINS v. SAME.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April 18, 1900.

Appeal from chancery court, Carroll county; A. G. Hawkins, Chancellor.

Bill by the Southern Building & Loan Association against J. T. Rodgers and Jo. R. Hawkins to restrain the sale of certain land. From an order dismissing the bill against Hawkins and granting the relief prayed in his cross bill, complainant appeals. Modified and affirmed.

McCall & McCall, for appellant. Alving Hawkins and J. T. Peeler, for appellees.

CALDWELL, J.

J. F. Rodgers gave his promissory note to the Southern Building & Loan Association for $600, and executed a deed of trust on a certain lot in the town of Huntingdon to secure its payment. Thereafter the same lot was condemned for sale under an execution issued by a justice of the peace on a judgment in favor of Jo. R. Hawkins and against J. F. Rodgers. The original bill in this case was filed by the Southern Building & Loan Association to restrain the sale in favor of Hawkins, to correct the defective registration of the deed of trust, and to foreclose that instrument by a judicial sale of the lot for the payment of the $600 note. Hawkins answered the original bill and filed a cross bill, in which he assailed the deed of trust as void against creditors, because not properly registered, and sought to have the lot sold to satisfy his judgment and order of sale. The original bill was dismissed as to Hawkins, and the relief prayed for in the cross bill was granted. The original complainant appealed.

This court's conclusions in regard to the questions raised may be briefly stated.

1. That registration of the deed of trust was fatally defective, in that it described no property at all, but only gave some inconsistent calls and unclosed lines. The first line called for in the registered description runs north 163 feet; the second one runs back on the first, south 109 feet; the third and last one runs east 263 feet, forming two right angles, without more, thus:

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

The spreading of such a description upon the register's book gave the grantee nothing, and interposed no obstruction against creditors of the grantor.

2. The fact that the registration of the deed of trust was preceded by statutory notation, under section 567 of Shannon's Code, could be of no avail to the original complainant after Hawkins had levied on the lot. In the first...