Vitt v. Rogers Et Al‪.‬

Real Estate Mortgages ? Extension by Agreement Before Maturity of Debt ? Statute ? Effect on Holder of Subsequent Mortgage. Real Estate Mortgage ? Limit of Life of Mortgage, if not Extended ? Statute ? Construction. 1. The purpose of the legislature in enacting section 8267, Revised Codes 1921, providing that a real estate mortgage shall be good from the time it is recorded until eight years after maturity of the debt secured by it, and no longer, unless the mortgagee or his successors in interest shall within sixty days after the expiration of the eight years, file a renewal affidavit, in which event the mortgage shall be good against all persons for another period of eight years, was definitely to limit the life of a mortgage, unless extended, to eight years from the maturity of the debt (except as between the parties themselves); that the remedy therein provided may be invoked by the mortgagee or his successors only and, if invoked, the mortgagee may foreclose at any time during the second eight-year period, and that any implication to the contrary in Morrison v. Traders &; Farmers Bank, 70 Mont. 146, must be overruled. - Page 121 Same ? Parties to Mortgage may Renew or Extend It by Agreement, When. 2. The parties to a real estate mortgage may, under section 8264, Revised Codes 1921, renew or extend it within the eight-year period following the maturity of the debt secured, though the rights of subsequent mortgagees have attached in the meantime, if by such renewal or extension the latter are not injured. Same ? Extension of Life of Mortgage by Agreement ? Recordation ? Subsequent Mortgagee not Injured. 3. Where during the life of a properly recorded real estate mortgage as fixed by section 8267, Revised Codes 1921, parties took a second mortgage on the premises, and thereafter and before the expiration of the first its life (meaning thereby the maturity of the debt) was extended by an agreement in writing between the parties thereto for a period of two years as they properly could do under section 8264, the extension being also placed of record, the second mortgagees were then in no worse position than they were when they took their mortgage, hence were not injured by the extension and therefore their claim made in a foreclosure suit brought by the holder of the first mortgage within the two-year extension period that plaintiffs lien had become inferior to theirs by his failure to file the renewal affidavit required by section 8267, held without merit.