Ball v. Disney

⁸⁵ Boyd, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This case is before us on an appeal from an order of ratification of a sale made by Thomas II. Disney, assignee of a mortgage, to which exceptions were filed by the attorney in fact of the mortgagor. The grounds stated for the exceptions were: “First — Because there were no competitive bidders at said sale.

Second — Because this property is a development, laid out in lots, and should have been offered as such, instead of as a whole. Third — Because of the inadequacy of price. Fourth — Because and for other reasons to be assigned at the hearing.” The only reason assigned which requires any extended discussion is the second, and, incidentally, the third may be mentioned in connection with it. The first is of no moment under the circumstances shown, and there were no new grounds presented at the hearing.

The record is not very satisfactory, but as far as we can gather from it, Miss R. Jennie Speers originally owned the property. It was laid out into lots of twenty-five by one hundred feet for the most part, varying at some places on account of streets and roads, of which there was on the northwesterly side what is called Jumper Hole Road, near the middle of the plat a county road, and some streets. There was a mortgage on it, held by the Huntington Savings Bank, which was foreclosed, exceptions filed to a sale, and an arrangement then made to have the title taken in the name of John T. Ball, a young man who had lived with Miss Speers* mother. Including the expenses, the amount necessary to be raised was $875, and the property was conveyed to Ball, who gave a note secured by a mortgage on the property for that amount, dated the 28th of June, 1916, payable three years after date, with interest payable semi-annually.

Thos. IT. Disney, the appellee, guaranteed payment of the note, and on the 28th of June, 1919, the mortgage and note were taken up by and assigned to him. While Miss Speers still owned the property, she had sold a number of lots, which were scattered over the tract.

As the witness Morgan, a ⁸⁶ real estate man living at Glenbumie, testified: “The property was laid off a number of years ago, I don’t know bow long, and some lots sold at that time, I suppose twenty-five per cent, of it sold off in lots, leaving these small portions scattered all over the tract.” There are, however, apparently some blocks on the plat between the streets on which no lots were sold. The tract is about a quarter of a mile from Earleigh Heights Station on the Short Line Railroad, between Annapolis and Baltimore. It has no water front, and is a mile and a half or more from the Severn River, but there is a road running by it that goes to the river. ' Under the terms of the mortgage, the mortgagor had the right, at any interest period, to pay off the mortgage, or the sum of one hundred dollars thereon, at the rate of twenty-five dollars per acre, and upon payment in whole or in part, to secure a release for the sum paid. Not one lot was sold from the date of the mortgage (June 28th, 1916,) to the day of sale (April 22nd, 1922).

Not a dollar of principal or interest was paid, and Mr. Disney paid the taxes. There had been a prior sale of the property under the mortgage, reported on August 16th, 1921, for $1,100, but exceptions were filed to that and it was set aside on March 16, 1922. There can be no serious claim that there was such an inadequacy of price at the last sale as to require it to be set aside, unless it was the result of improperly selling the property in bulk instead of by lots, or in smaller quantities than the whole. It is true that Miss Speers placed a much higher value on it, by fixing the price per lot at twenty-five dollars, and in that way fixing three hundred dollars per acre, but the evidence is decidedly against such figures.

The purchase price paid by the mortgagor in 1916 was only $875, including expenses incurred in the negotiations, and, so far as the record discloses, not a single lot was sold from the time he obtained the property, and no witness has expressed a willingness to pay $1,400 for it. One lady, who had bought property in the neighborhood but had not sold any, said ⁸⁷ that in her estimation it would be worth one hundred dollars a lot of twenty-five by one hundred feet, but, when asked if she would give $1,500 for the whole property, said, “No, 1 do not want it,” and when asked if she knew anyone who did, replied in the negative. Mr. Morgan, the only witness whose business and acquaintance with the property would enable him to speak knowingly about it, said he had an offer for the entire tract of $1,500, but he did not think he would advise anybody to go higher than that. He said there are no improvements on it, that the only house which had been built on it was burned, and that “it is a piece of property covered for the most part by a small