Penna. Co. for Insurances on Lives & Granting Annuities v. Halpern

Citations

• 273 Pa. 451
• 117 A. 197
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 597

Syllabus

<p>Mortgage — Judgment—Index—Name—Discharge of lien — Notice — Res adjudícala — Purchaser at sheriff’s sale — Auditor.</p> <p>1. Implied or constructive notice of a prior lien is only effective to charge a purchaser or mortgagee when the circumstances are of such a character that a failure to obtain the knowledge would be gross and culpable negligence.</p> <p>2. The record of a canceled instrument furnishes no constructive notice of its contents.</p> <p>3. Where a mortgage is executed by one as “Harry L. Halpern,” and it is agreed that a prior mortgage shall be paid out of the proceeds, the mortgagee is not bound to examine the prior mortgage which described the mortgagor therein as “Harry L. Halpern sometimes called Harry Halpern,” and then to examine the judgment index where he would have discovered a judgment against Harry Halpern.</p> <p>4. If the mortgaged premises are subsequently sold under a junior judgment, the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale cannot set up, as a defense to a scire facias on the mortgage, that the lien of such mortgage was discharged because of the antecedent indexed judgment against “Harry Halpern,” and this is the case even if the mortgagee had actual notice of the existence of such judgment, and that “Harry L. Halpern” was in fact the same person as “Harry Halpern.”</p> <p>5. The finding of an auditor appointed to distribute the proceeds of the sheriff’s sale is not binding upon the mortgagee in his suit on the scire facias, and this is especially so if he does not appear before the auditor, and in fact declined to do so. An incidental finding, in the contest between others, that the lien of his mortgage was discharged cannot affect his rights in the scire facias proceedings.</p> <p>6. The rights of parties at a judicial sale must be controlled by the record as it stands at that time.</p>