## Facts

- Portland Mortgage Company held a first mortgage on real property owned by Katherine M. and Byron L. Randol.
- Creditors Protective Association later obtained a judgment against the Randols that became a junior lien on the property.
- Portland foreclosed its mortgage without joining Creditors; Portland purchased the property at the foreclosure sale for the mortgage debt plus costs, and the sale was confirmed.
- Because Creditors’ junior judgment lien was not foreclosed, Portland brought a separate equity suit alleging the lien was a cloud on title and seeking to require Creditors to redeem within a court-set time or be barred.
- The court entered an interlocutory decree requiring Creditors to redeem within the specified period or lose any claim to the property.
- Creditors gave notice of intent to redeem within the decree’s time window.
- Before the scheduled redemption, Portland paid an amount sufficient to satisfy Creditors’ judgment; after the judgment was satisfied, the sheriff refused to accept Creditors’ tender to redeem.
- Creditors moved for an order compelling the sheriff to accept redemption; the circuit court denied the motion, and Creditors appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a judgment lien creditor retains a statutory right to redeem from a foreclosure sale after the foreclosure purchaser satisfies the creditor’s judgment, extinguishing the judgment lien.
2. Whether the sheriff may refuse a redemption tender by a purported lien creditor whose judgment has been satisfied before redemption is completed.

## Decision

- The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the order denying Creditors’ motion to compel the sheriff to accept redemption.
- A lien creditor’s statutory right of redemption depends on the continued existence of an unsatisfied judgment lien.
- Portland’s satisfaction of Creditors’ judgment extinguished the judgment lien and, with it, any statutory redemption right incident to that lien.
- Because Creditors no longer held an enforceable judgment lien at the time of its tender, the sheriff properly refused to accept the attempted redemption.

## Legal Principles

- A judgment lien creditor’s statutory right of redemption is incident to, and contingent upon, an existing unsatisfied judgment lien.
- Satisfaction of the judgment extinguishes the lien; when the lien is extinguished, the creditor loses the statutory status necessary to redeem.
- In a quiet-title-type equity proceeding addressing an omitted junior lien, a court may require the junior lienholder to redeem within a defined time, but the lienholder cannot redeem if its judgment is satisfied before redemption is consummated.
- A sheriff may reject a redemption tender when the tendering party lacks a subsisting lien-based statutory right to redeem.

## Conclusion

Because Portland satisfied Creditors’ judgment before Creditors completed redemption, the judgment lien and the statutory redemption right based on that lien were extinguished, and the sheriff and trial court properly refused to allow redemption.


Portland Mortgage Co. v. Creditors Protective Ass'n, 199 Or. 432, 262 P.2d 918 (Or. 1953)