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141 Ark. 262

Barton v. Matthews

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided December 15, 1919

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1919-12-15

Barton was clearly subrogated to the rights of T. M. Neal. 04 Ark. 273; 86 Ca. 198; 124 Ind. 254; 123 Ala. 125; 71 Iowa 106. 2. Tht deed of Mary J. Matthews to her mother was void because she was one of the parties to receive the benefit of the foreclosure saiq to Barton and because made for the benefit of a debtor wlum insolvent. 10 Ala 231; 3 Md. 11; 47 W Va. 106; 69 N. Y. 1,87. 3. As to Barton’s right to subrogation,-see alsu 56 Aik. 73, 85 Ala. 233.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[U]ntil the creditor be wholly satisfied, there ought to and can be no interference with his rights or his securities which might, even by bare possibility, prejudice or embarrass him in any way in the collection of the residue of his claim.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance v. City of Pine Bluff

Relies on Receivers of the New Jersey Midland Railway Co. v. Wortendyke · Richeson v. National Bank · Jones v. Harris

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

affirmed · Decided 1919-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently January 2004

5 federal appellate · 12 state decisions

801919192019301940195019601970198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Smith, J.

¶1A. J. Matthews in his lifetime owned the south half northeast quarter section 34, township 8 north, range 20 west, and executed a mortgage thereon, in which his wife Lavissa joined, to one T. M. Neal, to secure a debt of $1,650. Matthews died, and a suit was brought against his widow and heirs to foreclose this mortgage. In the decree rendered in that cause it is recited that L. E. Barton tendered into court the sum of three thousand dollars as his bid for the land, and that bid was accepted and a commissioner appointed to execute a deed to Barton. The mortgage debt,which appears to have been reduced to the sum of $744.50, was ordered to be first paid, and the sum of $1,600 was ordered appropriated and applied to the payment of the purchase price of the south half southwest quarter section township 8 north, range 20 west, which the °w had bought as a homestead for herself and he- children, and the remainder was ordered to be pai¿ to certain of the children. This decr»« was rendered December 11, 1916.

¶2There w"- e ten of theso cliiMio-», 0ne of whom was nam»^ -¡siary J. Matthews, and against who*». a judgment for $720 was rendered in the chancery court on Septos ber 16, 1916, in favor of one J. W. Turnbow. On November 1,1916, Mary J. Matthews executed to her mother a deed to her interest in the land in section 34, and about that time the other adult children did likewise.

¶3On September 13, 1917, an execution issued on the Turnbow judgment, which was levied on the undivided interest of Mary J. Matthews in the lands in section 34, whereupon Barton brought suit to restrain the sheriff from selling that interest. A decree was entered in that cause on October 19, 1917, in which the court found that the interest of Mary J. Matthews in the land in - 34, after discharging the mortgage iwcctedness, wa $200, and that Turnbov wag entitled to receive, by virtue of his -judgment and execution thereunder, the sum of $200 from the sale of said land. Tho court thereupon ordered that Barton pay to Turnbow the sum of $200. whereupon he “should be subrogated to all the rights ot said J. W. Turnbow under said judgment to the extent of the present interest of the said Mary J. Matthews as heir.at law of the said A. J. Matthews.” No question is raised as to the validity of either of these decrees.

¶4Thereafter Lavissa Matthews, the widow of A. J. Matthews, brought' this suit against Barton and Mary J. Matthews to quiet her title to the land in section 26; and an answer and cross-complaint was filed by Barton, in which he prayed that he be subrogated to all the rights of J. W. Turnbow ag’ainst the said Mary J. Matthews in and to her one-tenth interest in the estate of- A. J. Matthews, deceased. The relief prayed by the widow was granted, and that prayed by Barton was denied, and this appeal has been prosecuted from that decree.

¶5The court properly denied Barton’s prayer for subrogation, for* the reason that he had paid a portion only of the debt c*ie Turnbow. In Richeson v. National Bank of Mena, 96 Ark. 601, w^moted from Bank of Fayetteville v. Lorwein, 76 Ark. 245, *^following statement of the law:

¶6“Before Ane surety can claim the right to tin, Wiprfrt ¡my of the securities, he must first pay the entire debt of the principal for the payment of which the securities were given. As is' said in the case of Bank of Fayetteville v. Lorwein, 76 Ark. 245: ‘The right of subrogation can not be enforced until the whole debt is paid, and until the creditor be wholly satisfied, there ought to and.can be no interference with his rights or his securities which might, even by bare possibility, prejudice or embarrass him in any way in the collection of the residue of his claim. ’ Sheldon on Subrogation, sec. 127; 4 Pom. Eq. Jur, sec. 1419, 27 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law 210; McConnell v. Beattie, 34 Ark. 113, and cases cited Bank of Fayetteville v. Lorwein, supra.

¶7See also ShelMon on s.wa'tion (2 Ed.), secs. 14, 70; Jones v. Harris, 90 Ark. 51, 55; Plunkett v. State Nat. Bank, 90 Ark. 60, 80, State ex rel. Luck v. Atkins, 53 Ark. 303; McConnell, Admr., v. Beattie, Admr., 34 Ark. 113; Schoonover v. Allen, 40 Ark. 132, 137, 138; Receivers of N. J. Midland Ry. Co. v. Wortendyke, 27 N. J. Eq. 658; Morrow v. U. S. Mortgage Co., 96 Ind. 21; Lumberman's Ins. Co. v. Sprague, 59 Minn. 208, 60 N. W. 1101; Muller v. Flavin, 13 S. D. 595, 610; Featherstone v. Emerson, 14 Utah 12; Kyner v. Kyner, 6 Watts (Pa.) 221.

¶8Decree affirmed.

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