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First National Bank of Gainesville v. Pounds et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia1927-01-14No. No. 5467
163 Ga. 551

Summary

Holding. The judgment in favor of the claimants was reversed because the trial court erred in instructing the jury that the bank's knowledge of the claimants' financial contribution to the land would entitle them to ownership. A bona fide lender without notice of an equitable interest takes a security deed free from the claimants' secret equity.

A mother took title to land in her own name using funds that belonged jointly to herself and her children. Although a resulting trust arose in favor of the children based on their financial contribution, they cannot assert ownership against a third party who loaned money to the mother in good faith, without notice of the children's equitable interest, and took a security deed as collateral. Such a lender stands in the same position as a bona fide purchaser without notice and is protected from the children's secret equity. Additionally, when children allow their mother to use property titled in her name for business and credit purposes, and a creditor extends credit without notice of the children's interest and obtains a judgment lien, the children are estopped from later asserting title against that judgment lien, even if the mother had previously conveyed the property to them.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether children with equitable title to property titled in their mother's name can assert ownership against a bona fide creditor without notice
  • The effect of a creditor's good faith loan and security deed on hidden equitable interests
  • Whether a judgment lien obtained by a creditor binds land despite the existence of a secret equitable trust
  • Estoppel of equitable claimants when the legal title holder uses property for commercial purposes

Procedural posture

The case was tried before a jury in the superior court, which returned a verdict in favor of the claimants; the judgment was reversed on appeal.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Hines, J.

1. While as to lands purchased by a mother with funds belonging jointly to herself and her children, to which she took title in her own name, a resulting trust immediately arose in favor of the children, they can not assert ownership thereof as against a third person who, in ignorance and without notice of- their secret equity, and on the faith of the mother’s apparent title, makes to the mother in good faith a bona fide loan secured by. a deed to the lands so held in trust. Under such circumstances the grantee in the security deed, or one holding under him, to the extent of his interest in the lands so conveyed, stands upon the same footing as a bona fide purchaser without notice of the trust; aliter, if he had such notice. Thrasher v. Partee, 37 Ga. 392; Lane v. Partee, 41 Ga. 202; Sumner v. Bryan, 54 Ga. 613 (5) ; Lewis v. Equitable Mortgage Co., 94 Ga. 572 (3) (21 S. E. 224) ; Parker v. Barnesville Savings Bank, 107 Ga. 652 (34 S. E. 365) ; Talley v. Mozley, 149 Ga. 529 (101 S. E. 120); Civil Code (1910), § 4531.

2. A transfer of a note secured by deed to land conveys to the transferee the benefit of the security. Civil Code (1910), § 4276; Roberts v. Mansfield, 32 Ga. 228. If such transfer did not carry the legal title to the land embraced in the security deed, it carried with it an equitable interest in the security; and a court of equity will give effect to the transferee’s rights in the premises. Henry v. McAllister, 93 Ga. 667, 671 (20 S. E. 66) ; Van Pelt v. Hurt, 97 Ga. 660 (2) (25 S. E. 489) ; Shumate v. McLendon, 120 Ga. 396 (48 S. E. 10) ; Clark v. Havard, 122 Ga. 273 (50 S. E. 108) ; Carter v. Johnson, 156 Ga. 207, 211 (119 S. E. 22).

3. If one with notice sells to one without notice, the latter is protected. Civil Code (1910), § 4535. If the grantee in the security deed, with notice of the equity of the claimants in the lands therein conveyed, transferred for value the note thereby secured to another without notice of such equity and who took the same in good faith, the latter acquired at least an equitable interest in such land as a purchaser, and holds such interest free from the secret equity of the claimants and the implied trust set up. Civil Code (1910), § 3762. In Planters Bank of Fort Valley v. Prater, 64 Ga. 609, the notes were transferred by mere delivery and without indorsement. Besides, in that ease, the notes were payable to order, and had not been assigned in writing by indorsement or otherwise to the holder.

No. 5467.

January 14, 1927.

Claim. Before Judge Stark. Banks superior court. April 24, 1926.

A. C. Wheeler, for plaintiff.

Horace & Frank Holden, S. R. Jolly, and J. B. G. Logan, for defendants.

4. Where the legal title to land was in the mother, and she held the possession thereof under such title, and the title and possession so remained until a creditor who gave credit on the faith that the property was the mother’s, without any notice of the children’s equity, reduced his debt to judgment, the lien of such judgment will bind the land and will be enforced against the secret equity of the children resulting from the fact that their money paid in part for the land. Zimmer v. Dansby, 56 Ga. 79; Ford v. Blackshear Manufacturing Co., 140 Ga. 670 (79 S. E. 576); Krueger v. MacDougald, 148 Ga. 429 (96 S. E. 867) ; Orr Shoe Co. v. Lee, 159 Ga. 523 (3) (126 S. E. 292).

5. If children, having an equitable title to land to which deed is taken in the name of their mother, permit her to hold the property and use it in her business and commercial transactions for the purpose of obtaining credit, and a third person, without notice of the equity, extends credit to the mother on the faith that the land is hers, the children will, after the creditor has reduced his debt to judgment, be estopped from asserting title to the land as against the lien of the judgment, even though, before the lien of the judgment had attached, the mother in recognition of their equity had conveyed the land to the children. Ford v. Blackshear Manufacturing Co., supra. Much more will the children be estopped as the mother had not, in recognition of their equity, conveyed the land to them before the rendition of the judgment in favor of the creditor.

6. The minority of the claimants would not render inapplicable to them the rulings made in the first four headnotes; but the minority of any of the children might render inapplicable to them the principle announced in the fifth headnote.

7. Applying the above rulings, the court erred in instructing the jury that if they believed that before or at the time the loan was obtained from the Bank of Gillsville the bank had notice, through its officers or agents, that the claimants’ money, obtained from insurance upon their father’s life and from the settlement with the railroad company for damages on account of his death, was invested in this land, it would be their duty to find in favor of the claimants five sixths of this land; and under such rulings and the evidence in the case the verdict in favor of the claimants was contrary to law.

Judgment reversed.

All the Justices concur.