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2 Ind. 406

Lacoss v. Keegan

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided December 6, 1850

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1850-12-06

<p>Bill to foreclose a mortgage. The mortgage was executed to secure a debt payable in instalments. But one instalment was due at the filing of the bill. The bill was taken as confessed; it was referred to a master to report upon the condition of the mortgaged premises who reported them not susceptible of division, whereupon it was “ ordered,” &c., that the defendants pay the complainant the full amount of all the instalments due and not due within ninety days, or that the whole of the property be sold. Held, that the decree should have been that the defendants pay the amount of the instalment due, and in default, that the whole property be sold to make the whole debt.</p> <p>The report of a master in chancery upon the condition of mortgaged property, should state the reasons why the property is not susceptible of division, if he so report.</p>

Relies on Greenman v. Pattison

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1850-12-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1979

4 state decisions

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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.

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Perkins, J.

¶1On the 2d day of March, 1849, Keegan filed his bill in the St. Joseph Circuit Court, against Lacoss and others, to foreclose a mortgage. The mortgage was executed to secure a debt payable in instalments, the first of which fell due on the 1st day of February, 1849; the second, the 1st day of February, 1850; and the third, the 1st day of February. 1851. Lacoss and wife, two of the defendants, answered, confessing the bill. Bowman and Russell, other two of the defendants, made default, and as to them the bill was taken as confessed. At the April term of the Court, 1849, it was referred to a master in chancery to report upon the condition of the mortgaged premises. He reported that they were not susceptible of division, and should all be sold together; and thereupon it was “ ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the Court that the said defendants do pay to the said complainant the said sum of 214 dollars [being the amount of all the instalments, due and not due, secured by the mortgage] within ninety days,” &c., or in default, &c., that the whole of the property be sold, &c.

¶2This decree is erroneous. It should have been that the defendants pay the complainant 70 dollars and 62 cents, the amount of the instalment then due, and, in default of such payment, that the property be sold to make the whole debt, being 214 dollars. Suffern v. Johnson, 1 Page, 450. — R. S., p. 461, ss. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44.

¶3In the Ontario Bank v. Strong, 2 Page, 301, it is said the master’s report on the condition of the mortgaged property should state the reasons why the property is not susceptible of division, if he so report; and see Greenman v. Pattison, 8 Blackf. 465.

Per Curiam.

¶4The decree is reversed with costs. Cause remanded, &c.

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