Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Baltimore-Gillet Co.

Bond, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellees’ assignor, after purchasing from the appellants a tract of land in the suburbs of Baltimore City, giving the appellants a mortgage for part of the purchase price, made a contract with the City for the extension of water mains under streets to be opened on the tract, upon a deposit with the City of $8370; and there was a stipulation for allowance of credits or refunds as dwelling houses should be built subsequently to connect with the mains, and service charges for the con ⁵⁹⁶ nections should be paid. These credits have accumulated, but meanwhile the mortgage has been foreclosed and the property bought in by the mortgagees. And the question is: To whom should the credits or refunds be paid, the assignee of the original purchaser, who paid in the amount on which the refunds have been allowed, or to the present owners under their purchase at the foreclosure sale?

The fund has been claimed by both, and the City brought a bill of interpleader in equity for determination of the controversy. The present appellants were designated plaintiffs in the suit. Upon a hearing on the bill, answer, and testimony taken, the chancellor concluded and decreed that the defendant, assignee of the original purchaser who paid in the money to be refunded, was entitled. This court concurs.

The contract for laying the mains was in a letter of application, duly accepted, but not acknowledged or recorded as an instrument affecting title to land. It required a deposit of $1.50 for each 5580 feet of extensions made in the streets of the projected development of the tract, and the provision for credits and refunds followed immediately. “On any application,” read the letter, “for water service and requiring an extension of a water main inside the corporate limits of the City of Baltimore will require a deposit, which will not bear interest, of $1.50 per linear foot of extension applied for and to be laid to a point opposite the last building applying for water. A credit or refund will be allowed of $100 for each dwelling where the lot abuts on the street in which the main is laid, and where the owner has made application and payment for the service pipe and the house is under roof. $100 will also be allowed for each $20 of water rent per annum where the same conditions obtain on business properties. “Refunds on permanent connections will be made at the end of each calendar quarter of . the year, provided the Bureau of Water Supply has been requested in writing to do so 30 days in advance of the expiration of such quarter and such a refund is found by inspection to be' ⁵⁹⁷ in order, but from and after ten years following date of payment to the City of the deposit, the City will not nor shall it be required to refund any part or amount of the deposit which shall remain unrefunded, nor shall any depositor have or be entitled to make any claim or demand upon the City for any such unrefunded deposit or balance of any deposit.” The City’s acceptance was evidenced by a short statement of the fact, with an acknowledgment of receipt of the money deposited, under the signature of an agent of the water engineer. In pursuance of the agreement, the City paid the mortgagor §500 in refunds, and a total sum of §2600 has since become payable, and has been credited and deposited in court awaiting the decree.

The contract was drafted without any express reference to the possibility of change in ownership of the land, and the change made has brought it about that the refunds must be earned under the contract by development of the property in the hands of another. Nevertheless the agreement was in terms one to refund money paid in by the original