First National Bank of St. Paul v. Ramier

How later courts described this case

• concluding that constructive trust was inappropriate when a bank did not require security for a loan or obtain a potential joint tenant’s signature on the promissory note
• finding of equitable mortgage inappropriate when document conclusively states that it is an unsecured loan
• when the real nature of the transaction is that of a loan advanced upon the security of realty it will be treated as an equitable mortgage without regard to the actual form of the instrument of conveyance
• “[U]njust enrichment claims do not lie simply because one party benefits from the efforts or obligations of others, but instead it must be shown that a party was unjustly enriched in the sense that the term unjustly could mean illegally or unlawfully.”

Written by the judges who cited it.