Whaley v. Bright

• Decision Date: 07 November 1914
• Docket Number: 607
• Citation: 189 Ala. 134,66 So. 644
• Parties: WHALEY v. BRIGHT.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

66 So. 644

189 Ala. 134

WHALEY v. BRIGHT.

No. 607

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 7, 1914

Appeal from Chancery Court, Cullman County; W.H. Simpson Chancellor.

Bill by J.M. Bright against J.R. Tolbert and J.E. Whaley for a receiver, and to have applied to the payment of a mortgage the proceeds of certain crops alleged to have been raised by Tolbert. From a decree granting relief, respondent Whaley appeals. Affirmed.

W.E James, of Cullman, for appellant.

Brown &amp Griffith, of Cullman, for appellee.

DE GRAFFENRIED, J.

In the year 1910, Tolbert executed a mortgage to J.M. Bright to secure an indebtedness a part of which yet remains unpaid. The mortgage was made upon, among other things, "all of my crops of cotton, corn and other products I may raise or that may accrue to me in any legal manner during the year 1910 and every year thereafter, until this debt is fully satisfied."

At the time of the execution of the mortgage Tolbert was in possession of certain lands in Blount county, which he had leased for a term of five years from one Albrittain and which lands he was then cultivating. Under the authority of Truss et al., Ex'rs, v. Harvey, 120 Ala. 636, 24 So. 927 --in which case a mortgage containing the above identical quoted stipulations was construed--this mortgage conveyed to Bright the legal title to all crops grown by Tolbert on said leased lands for the year 1910, and the equitable title to all the crops grown by Tolbert on said leased lands during the years succeeding 1910 during the lief of the lease, but not longer. Sellers & Orum Co. v. J.H. Hardaway & G.W Covington, 66 So. 460, present term.

It follows therefore that as the lease, being for five years, extended beyond the year 1911, the said mortgage conveyed to Bright the equitable title to the crops grown by Tolbert on said leased premises for the year 1911. Truss et al., Ex'rs, v. Harvey, supra; Sellers & Orum Co. v. J.H. Hardaway & G.W. Covington, supra.

2. The above mortgage was executed on January 31, 1910, and was filed for record in the probate office of Blount county on February 2, 1910. The leased lands were in Blount county, and the recordation of the mortgage gave constructive notice of its existence and of the lien which was created by it to all subsequent purchasers, mortgagees, etc. Truss v. Harvey, supra.

It follows that the mortgage which was executed by Tolbert to J.E. Whaley in 1911--if it be treated as a valid mortgage--on the crops to be grown by Tolbert that year on the above lands, is, in a court of equity, subordinate to the lien created by the above mortgage from Tolbert to Bright. The Bright mortgage was of record in Blount county when the Whaley mortgage was executed, and...