Majority
Headnote
Attorney and Client—Authority.—An attorney is the agent of his client for the management and conduct of the cause while it is pending before the court for determination, and, as such agent, he has authority to bind his client in all matters pertaining to the conduct and management of the suit.The statement of the case by appellants and respondents in their respective briefs does not differ materially. We have followed that of the respondents mainly.
On April 13, 1909, the plaintiff herein brought suit against Wellington Gregg, Jr., as trustee, under a trust deed made to secure certain notes of the Keane-Wonder Company given to the Francis Mohawk Company and James F. Peck, to enjoin a sale of the property therein described under an advertisement in execution of the power of sale contained in such trust deed, and for an accounting for moneys received and paid on account of indebtedness, and for other relief. A preliminary injunction was issued prohibiting the trustee from making a sale of the property. The defendant, Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company, filed its answer and cross-complaint, in which it claimed that it owned the notes given to it by the Keane-Wonder Mining Company, and alleged that the same, together with certain notes given to James F. Peck, were secured by a mortgage or trust deed covering all the property of the Keane-Wonder Mining Company. It claimed that the lien thus created was valid and enforceable, and prayed a foreclosure of the trust deed under the equitable powers of the court.
The defendant, Benjamin H. Tatem, who had succeeded to the rights of James F. Peek, filed his answer and set forth his right of security under the trust deed in question, and prayed that if the same be foreclosed, such foreclosure should also be in his interest.
While the pleadings were in this condition, all the then parties to the suit, by their respective attorneys, entered into two stipulations, for the purpose of settling all matters of controversy between them, and of giving the Keane-Wonder Mining Company the opportunity to liquidate its indebtedness in whole or in part, by the operation of its mining properties. In the first stipulation it was recited that Wildes, as receiver, had been made a party to the suit “with the purpose and object that his claim, if any, to said promissory notes or the money due thereon, or the indebtedness represented thereby, should be fully and finally determined.” The stipulation then proceeded: “Now, therefore, in consideration of the premises and for the purpose of enabling the said Keane-Wonder Mining Company to pay its said indebtedness, and of enabling its creditors to receive payment thereof as speedily as possible, and to avoid further litigation and expense of all parties thereto and to finally determine this litigation, it is hereby stipulated and agreed,” etc. It is also provided that the Keane-Wonder Mining Company should pay monthly to A. L. Meyerstein, as trustee, the net proceeds of the operation of its mines which should accrue from the first day of November, 1909, to be held by Meyer-stein as trustee until it should be determined whether Wildes, as receiver, or the Francis Mohawk Mining Company was entitled to the same, and, upon such determination being reached, to pay over this one-fourth to Tatem and three-fourths to the party thus found to be entitled thereto; the amount when paid over to the respective parties to be credited on the notes belonging to the respective parties as of the date of such payment. It then provided how the net proceeds should be determined; provided for the inspection of the mine’s operation, records, and books of the company, and made further provisions immaterial to the questions now before the court. It finally provided, however, that all proceedings in the action
This stipulation was preliminary to another entered into on the same day settling all questions and controversies between the parties. It recites: “Whereas, it is the desire and purpose of all the parties to this action to compromise and settle all issues involved herein between them and to permit the Keane-Wonder Mining Company to liquidate its indebtedness out of the net proceeds of its property, if possible, and to avoid any interruption of its own management of said property or the sale thereof.” It then recites the execution of the preliminary stipulation above noted, and provides that the second stipulation was entered into in consideration of such compromise and settlement, for the purpose of carrying the same into effect and fully perfecting the intention of the parties. It provides that there is due to the owners of the Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company’s notes the amount thereof, and to Benjamin H. Tatem, the amount of the notes given to Peek; that a decree of foreclosure should be entered after such litigation between Wildes and the Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company had been settled, and such decree should find that there was due Wellington Gregg, as trustee, under the deed, five hundred dollars as his compensation as trustee and five hundred dollars for his attorney’s fees, and provided: “which by the terms of said decree shall be paid out of the first monthly net proceeds of the mines of the Keane-Wonder Mining Company next accruing.” It then provides that it should be determined by said decree that the trust deed was a valid and enforceable obligation, and that the owners of the notes should have and be given the first lien upon all the property of the Keane-Wonder Mining Company as described in the trust deed, for the' payment of all moneys due thereon; that the deed of trust be foreclosed in equity on behalf of the owners of the notes, and that such owners should be entitled to a sale of all and singular the property of the Keane-Won
After the execution of these two stipulations Wildes appeared in the ease and filed his answer to the complaint, and also joined therewith a cross-bill setting forth his rights as receiver to the notes given by the Keane-Wonder Mining Company to the Francis Mohawk Mining Company. This answer and cross-complaint was amended and, after such amendment, the Francis Mohawk Mining Company filed its answer to such cross-bill.
While it is true that Wildes, in his cross-complaint, asked for an accounting from defendant Benjamin H. Tatem, and sought to recover judgment- against the Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company for the amount of money which might have been wrongfully paid to it by the Keane-Wonder Mining Company, such proceedings were thereafter had in court that Wildes waived his claim for an accounting against Tatem, settled all controversies between himself and the Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company, and became the owner of one-fifth of the indebtedness held by the Francis Mohawk Mining Company. This was in strict accord with the stipulation and the judgment is not in question here. This settlement is disclosed by the stipulation between the attorneys for Wildes as receiver and the attorneys of the Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company, dated January 16, 1914, and the interlocutory decree entered by the court on the twenty-fourth day of January, 1914. All controversies between Wildes as receiver and the Francis Mohawk Mining and Leasing Company having been settled by the above interlocutory decree, application was made for a decree of foreclosure, as provided for in the stipulation of November 6, 1909. This decree was duly entered by said court on the twenty-sixth day of June, 1914, and from this decree plaintiff and the Keane-Wonder Mining Company filed a notice of appeal on July 23, 1914.
On April 14, 1914, the owners of the notes served a notice of motion for a supplemental decree or order of sale accompanied by a petition. This motion came on regularly for hearing on the sixth day of May, 1914, and the court made an order that the motion should be at that time denied, without prejudice to the right of the parties to renew their motion and
After filing the answers, the court proceeded to the hearing of the issues then raised and made an order that the sale be made as prayed for. The order recites that: “Upon full consideration of the testimony, both oral and documentary, presented and given in open court in behalf of the respective parties, and the admission of the attorney and solicitor for the plaintiff and the defendant, the Keane-Wonder Mining Company, made in open court, the court now finds that said petitioners are entitled to the sale of all and singular the property, rights, and privileges described in the original decree of foreclosure duly made and entered January 26, 1914. Now; therefore, in pursuance of the exercise of the jurisdiction of this court, especially reserved in said original decree of foreclosure and as supplemental to said decree, it is hereby ordered,” etc. Appeals were also taken by each of the appellants from this order of sale.
Respondents have moved the court to dismiss each of the appeals on the ground that all right of appeal was waived by the stipulations under which the decree and subsequent order were made. The following is the provision relied upon: “It
Appellants advance several propositions in answer to the motion. It is contended that the attorneys who signed the stipulation (including, of course, themselves) had no authority to do so. Appellants say: “If this decree had been a consent decree—if in open court the parties had appeared and had consented to the entry of the decree appealed from, an appeal obviously would not have laid from it.” It is urged that this was not a consent decree, because the terms of the decree, “in great part, were left thereafter to be settled”; for example, the amount due on the notes was left blank in the proposed form of decree. Furthermore, the decree was “to be entered upon certain contingencies,” as shown by the following provision of the stipulation: “that immediately after the happening of any or all of the events mentioned in the attached stipulation ... a final decree of foreclosure of said deed of trust under the equity of this court shall be duly made upon the stipulation,” etc. It is further con
As to the alleged “contingencies” that were to happen, it appears that the “events mentioned in the stipulation” had reference exclusively to the relative rights of said Wildes, as receiver of the State Bank and Trust Company, and of said
Appellants further contend that the delay in filing the stipulations resulted in the commission of error in the amount found therein to be due. The Tatem (originally the Peck) notes bore interest at one per cent per month and the stipulation provided that the amount due Tatem should bear interest at seven per cent per annum from the date of the decree. Appellants contend that had the stipulations been filed immediately after being signed, the amount due at that time would have borne interest at seven per cent, and that the interest was erroneously computed at one per cent per month during this period of delay. The stipulation provided: “That a final decree of foreclosure of said deed of trust under the equity powers of this court shall be duly made . . . finding and decreeing that there is due and owing from said Keane-Wonder Mining Company ... to Benjamin H. Tatem ... on all the notes given by said KeaneWonder Mining Company to James F. Peck . . . together with all interest due thereon. Said decree shall be entered . . . in favor of Benjamin H. Tatem as successor in interest of the said James F. Peek . . . and the amount found due to the said Benjamin H. Tatem shall bear interest from the date of said decree at the rate of seven per cent per annum.” We think what was here meant was, without doubt, that interest was to be computed at the rate-fixed in the notes and
It is also urged that the decree was not a consent decree, because a part of its terms “were left thereafter to be settled.” Necessarily, the amount due upon the notes was left blank, but the stipulations clearly pointed out how the amount was to be ascertained. The things left to be settled were things for the settlement of which the stipulations made provision.
We have endeavored to consider the points urged against the motion and have assumed that, while the decree was entered under the stipulations, appellants have the right to show that it was not entered in accord with the iems of the stipulations. We have been unable to discover that there was any substantial or material deviation from the terms of the stipulations or that there was any departure therefrom in any way prejudicial to appellants.
Appellants contend that it was error to enter the order of sale for the reason that an appeal was pending from the decree of foreclosure, which, under section 949 of the Code of Civil Procedure, stayed all proceedings on the decree. Respondents reply that appellants waived their right to appeal from both the decree and the order. Furthermore, that in their appeal from the decree as well as from the order appellants filed only cost bonds in the sum of three hundred dollars, and no application was made to fix the amount of stay bond under section 945 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
We think both points are well taken by respondents. What has been said as to the waiver of the right to appeal applies equally to the decree and the order. The decree contains all the elements commonly regarded as necessary in a decree of foreclosure of a mortgage, and it seems to us that the stipulations clearly indicate that foreclosure proceedings were contemplated as the means of finally bringing about a settlement of the controversy. The decree determined the validity of the trust deed as enforceable and as creating a first lien on the
That the decree was not followed by an immediate sale does not affect its validity. In the present ease the delay was expressly provided for by the decree in pursuance of the terms of the stipulation upon which it was based. Section 945 reads as follows: “If the judgment or order appealed from, direct the sale or delivery of possession of real property, the execution of the same cannot be stayed, unless a written undertaking be executed on the part of the appellant, with two or more sureties, to the effect [then follow certain things which the appellant must refrain from doing], which must be specified in the undertaking.” And “when the judgment is for the sale of mortgaged premises, and the payment of a deficiency arising upon the sale, the undertaking must also provide for the payment of such deficiency.” The facts in this case, it seems to us, clearly bring it within the provisions of section 945.
In the ease of Owen v. Pomona Land & Water Co., 124 Cal. 331 , [ 57 Pac. 71 ], cited in Zappettini v. Buckles, 167 Cal. 27 , [ 138 Pac. 696 ], the latter cited by appellants, the court held that the decree taken in its entirety was “in substance an ordinary decree of foreclosure,” but the court said: “If the defendant had been in possession of the real property, the bond to stay proceedings should have secured to the respondent the damages by waste and the value of the use and occupation; but the plaintiff being himself in the exclusive possession, these clauses of the statute (section 945) have no application, and the case not being one of mortgage, no undertaking for the payment of the deficiency was required. ’ ’ In the present case defendant, Keane-Wonder Mining Company, was in possession at all times mentioned, and still is, so far as appears.
In Bank of Woodland v. Stephens, 137 Cal. 458 , [ 70 Pac. 293 ], the action was foreclosure of a mortgage. It was held that a stay bond was necessary where judgment for a de
Mr. Jones, in his work on Mortgages, volume 1, section 62, says: “A deed of trust to secure a debt is in legal effect a mortgage.” In Koch v. Briggs, 14 Cal. 257 , [ 73 Am. Dec. 651 ], it was held that a deed of trust is not a mortgage requiring a foreclosure. In that case it was insisted that the title of defendant could not be divested except by judicial foreclosure and sale. The distinguishing difference between a trust deed and mortgage pointed out was that “where there is a mortgage there is a right, after condition broken, to a foreclosure on the part of the mortgagee, and a right of redemption on the part of the mortgagor. ’ ’ In the present case the stipulation made provision for this feature and the decree gave the full statutory period for redemption. By consent of all parties the instrument was converted into and treated as a mortgage and was foreclosed as such.
Substantially all the points urged in support of the appeals upon their merits have been considered and disposed of in dealing with the foregoing matters. What has been said in connection therewith sufficiently shows, we think, that no error-prejudicial either to the defendant, Eeane-Wonder Mining Company, or its stockholders for whom plaintiff brought the action appears either in the decree or order of sale, and both the decree and order of sale are therefore affirmed.
Hart, J., and Burnett, J., concurred,
Cases cited
- Pacific Paving Co. v. Vizelich 1 Cal. App. 281 p. 252
- Hibernia Sav. & Loan Soc'y v. Waymire 152 Cal. 286 p. 252
- Knowlton v. Mackenzie 110 Cal. 183 at 188 p. 253
- Smith v. Whittier 95 Cal. 279 at 290 p. 253
- Owen v. Pomona Land & Water Co. 124 Cal. 331 p. 256
- Zappettini v. Buckles 167 Cal. 27 p. 256
- Bank of Woodland v. Stephens 137 Cal. 458 p. 256
- Painter v. Painter 98 Cal. 625 p. 257
- Englund v. Lewis 25 Cal. 337 at 354 p. 257