Price v. Karnes

Citations

• 59 Ill. 276

Syllabus

<p>1. Deed absolute in terms—when a mortgage. The doctrine is well settled, that a deed, absolute in terms, if intended to secure an indebtedness, is a mortgage, whether the intention is manifested by a written defeasance, by parol declarations, or by the acts of the parties.</p> <p>2. Same—proof. Where a deed is absolute on its face, the proof should be clear before a court would hold it a mortgage, and decree a foreclosure or a redemption.</p> <p>8. A party sold • another twelve lots of ground adjoining the city of Chicago, by a conditional agreement, and $3300 was paid, giving the purchaser the option, on seeing the property, if not satisfactory, to decline to hold it, and have the money returned; subsequently, and in July, 1857, and about one month afterward, the same grantor sold to the grantee twelve other lots in the same tract of land for $3900, $756 was paid, and notes given for the balance, $1900 was paid in August, and in the sanie month the twenty-four lots were conveyed to the purchaser by a warranty deed; this evidenced a purchase, and where the evidence is conflicting and unsatisfactory, it was proper for the court to refuse to decree the transac tion a mortgage, and to refuse permission to redeem as from a mortgage.</p>