T. J. Deavitt, Adm'r of Betsey Gifford's Estate v. A. E. Judevine And Others

Decision Date01 October 1887
Citation17 A. 410,60 Vt. 695
PartiesT. J. DEAVITT, ADM'R OF BETSEY GIFFORD'S ESTATE, v. A. E. JUDEVINE AND OTHERS
CourtVermont Supreme Court

GENERAL TERM, OCTOBER, 1887.

BILL to foreclose a mortgage. Heard on the pleadings and a special master's report, March Term, 1887, Washington county VEAZEY, Chancellor.

The decree below is affirmed, and the cause remanded.

T J. Deavitt, for the orator.

OPINION
POWERS

The rule is well settled in this State that in case of successive conveyances of parcels of land incumbered by a common mortgage, the parcels should be held to the duty of redemption in the inverse order of their dates. Lyman v. Lyman, 32 Vt. 79; Root v Collins, 34 Vt. 173.

No confusion will arise in the application of this rule to the case at bar, if the order of events be carefully noted.

E. M Gifford on September 17, 1864, owned lot 59, on the whole of which rested the Davis mortgage, which he had assumed to pay. On that day Gifford sold the west half of lot 29 to Gilchrist by warranty deed and received his pay in full. The effect of this severance of the lot and conveyance to Gilchrist was as between Gilchrist and Gifford to shift the burden of the Davis mortgage wholly from the west half to the east half which Gifford retained. Had the Davis mortgage been foreclosed in this posture of the title, Gifford's east half would first respond and the west half would be called on only in case the east did not make good the debt.

This equity that compels the half lot retained by Gifford when he conveyed the west half to Gilchrist to first respond to the Davis mortgage arises at the time of the severance of the land and by virtue of the severance. It was the primary duty of Gifford to pay Davis. This duty remained when he conveyed the west half to Gilchrist. Gifford gave Gilchrist a warranty deed which of itself was equivalent between the parties to a discharge of the Davis mortgage from the west half.

November 23, 1865, Gifford conveyed by warranty deed the east half to Plummer and Robbins, the title to which has since come to the orator's intestate. When Plummer and Robbins bought the east half of Gifford, they obtained Gifford's title to that half precisely as Gifford held it. The record showed them the Davis mortgage on the whole lot and the conveyance by warranty deed of the west half by Gifford to Gilchrist. Hence, they bought with notice of the actual state of the title and were...

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