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67 Barb. 458

Barker v. Burton

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1877

New York Supreme Court · decided 1877-05-15

THIS was an action to foreclose a mortgage which was not executed by the wife of the mortgagor, and was not given for purchase-money. It was executéd after marriage. Defence by wife that she was not a necessary party, &c. She was served with the summons, and a notice that no personal claim was made against her. On the 14th of December, 1876, she was served by the plaintiff with a stipulation that nothing in the judgment should affect her claim to dower.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently July 1934

4 state decisions

201877188018901900191019201930decided

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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Hardin, J.

¶1The wife was not a necessary party to the foreclosure of this mortgage. If she had not appeared, the judgment properly allowable would not affect her prior and superior interest in the premises. (Corning v. Smith, 6 N. Y., 82. Lewis v. Smith, 9 id., 517. Merchants’ Bank v. Thomson, 55 id., 7. Crary on Spe. Proceed., 280. 1 Wait’s Prac., 129, 134.)

¶2Section 131 of the Code provides for service of notice that no personal claim is made. That notice was served, and subsequently a stipulation given. Certainly the defendant would not have suffered if she had omitted to defend, when she could not have been harmed by any judgment the plaintiff could or proposed to take against her.

¶3That section provides that after such notice is given, the party who unreasonably defends may be charged with costs.

¶4What reasonable ground has the defendant for defending, in such a case ? Because the plaintiff unnecessarily made her a party, he ought not to have costs *460against her; and because she unnecessarily defended she isnot entitled, as a matter of right or within the principles which govern a reasonable discretion, entitled to costs.

[Onondaga Special Term,May, 1877.

¶5Judgment will therefore be entered without costs either to the plaintiff against her, or to the defendant against the plaintiff.

¶6Had thoe plaintiff applied for judgment under the Code of 1848, he would not be entitled to an extra allowance, without a separate order; but this application was under the Code of Remedial Justice, which provides for such an allowance in the judgment asked for.

¶7The plaintiff may have an order clause for two per cent.

¶8Ordered accordingly.

¶9Hardin, Justice.]

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