Canal National Bank v. Becker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 16 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[I]n the absence of clear, supportive evidence of a contrary intention a mortgage containing a dragnet type clause will not be extended to cover future advances unless the advances are of the same kind and quality or relate to the same transaction or series of transactions as the principal obligation secured or unless the document evi dencing the subsequent advance refers to the mortgage as providing security therefor.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sonia Uransky, as Trustee in Bankruptcy of Dean Barnard v. First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Fort Myers · Western Farm Credit Bank v. Auza (In Re Auza)

2. “A dragnet clause often ... is included in standard mortgage forms drafted by the mortgagee. The mortgagor may well be unaware of either its presence, or its implications. Mortgages containing future advances clauses have been denominated Anaconda mortgages and are well named thus, as by their broad and general terms they enwrap the unsuspecting debtor in the folds of indebtedness embraced and secured in the mortgage which he did not contemplate. A literal interpretation of the clause would allow the bank to turn to the real estate subject to the mortgage any time the mortgagor falls behind on a personal loan, misses a payment on an automobile loan, or overdraws his checking account at the bank.... Since application of dragnet clauses in mortgages in accordance with their literal terms might often work forfeitures upon unsuspecting mortgagors, we hold that the language of a dragnet clause alone is not conclusive of the parties’ intent where it is claimed that the clause covers loans made subsequent to the loan initially secured by the mortgage containing the dragnet clause.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Cushing v. Corporate America Federal Credit Union (In re Cushing) · 644 So. 2d 97 - UNITED NAT. BANK v. Tellam

3. “A future advances clause such as the one here in question is, however, by its very nature, ambiguous. Where the mortgagee is under no obligation to make future advances, as here, a mortgage, purporting to secure future advances, cannot secure such advances until they are actually made. “At most, those provisions represent an offer by the mortgagor to provide the security of the mortgage for such advances if and when they are made.” If such offer is accepted by the mortgagee in making a subsequent advance, then the subsequent advance is secured by the original mortgage. This always necessarily raises the question of the parties’ intent at the time of the making of the subsequent advance. Since the trial court must look to the parties’ intentions both at the time of the mortgage and at the time of the subsequent advance, the court cannot rely solely on the language of the dragnet clause....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Western Farm Credit Bank v. Auza (In Re Auza)