Agnew v. Renwick

Citations

• 27 S.C. 562
• 4 S.E. 223
• 1887 S.C. LEXIS 157

Syllabus

<p>1. A and B purchased together a tract of land and several slaves and other personalty to be worked by them in partnership, and at the same time gave their mortgage on this and other property, and pledged other collaterals, to secure the purchase money. Afterwards they offered this purchased property for sale, and B bid off the land and a portion of the personalty and assigned his bid to C, to whom both A and B made deeds of conveyance, and to whom the mortgagee released and relinquished dll the lien of said mortgage on the land and personalty purchased by him. The purchase money was paid by C to the mortgagee. The wife of A did not renounce her dower, and more than twenty years after this, A having died, she brought this action to recover dower in one-half of this land. Held, that she was entitled to the dower demanded.</p> <p>2. Petition for rehearing refused.</p> <p>Per McIver, A. J.</p> <p>3. The paper executed by the mortgagee to G was only a release of the mortgage lien upon the property purchased by him, and gave him no interest in the mortgage; but if construed as an assignment, the mortgage was extinguished, C thereby becoming the mortgagee of his own property. The only exception to this rule is where, as in Agnew v. Railroad Company (24 S. C., 18), there is an express agreement to prevent the merger.</p> <p>4. More than twenty years having elapsed since the maturity of the mortgage debt, the law will presume the mortgage satisfied.</p> <p>5. The sale to 0 was not under or through the mortgage, notwithstanding the purchase money was, by agreement, credited on the mortgage.</p>