Baum v. Trantham

Citations

• 42 S.C. 104
• 19 S.E. 973
• 1894 S.C. LEXIS 7

Syllabus

<p>1. Application of Payments. — A debtor may direct bis payment to be applied to any claim held against liim by the creditor to whom the payment is made, provided the application be directed'at the time of payment. If the debtor then fails to direct, the creditor, at any time before judgment, may make the application to any claim that he holds against such debtor.</p> <p>2. Ibid. — -Mutual Mistake. — A creditor held three claims against the same debtor, one secured by mortgage of land, one secured by mortgage of mules, and one unsecured. The debtor turned over the mules to the creditor, and agreed that the creditor should take them at a price that both parties then believed was less than the balance due on the chattel mortgage, the proceeds to enure to the debtor’s benefit, but no other direction being given as to the application of the proceeds. Five days afterwards the debtor ascertained from papers found by him that the chattel mortgage was overpaid, and at once directed the surplus to be applied to the land mortgage. Held., that the creditor had the right to apply this surplus to the unsecured debt.</p> <p>3. Ibid. — Chattel Mortgage. — The stipulation in the mortgage, that the net proceeds of any sale made thereunder should be applied to the mortgage debt and the overplus returned to the mortgagor, was not an application of the overplus; and the mortgagee had the right to apply it to any other demand held by him against the mortgagor.</p> <p>4. Ibid. — The creditor did not accept the debtor’s direction as to the application by asking for a statement, so that it might be entered on the creditor’s books, if found correct, its correctness being denied when furnished.</p>