Coles v. Berryhill

• Decision Date: 01 June 1887
• Citation: 37 Minn. 56
• Parties: ROBERT M. COLES <I>vs.</I> CHARLES J. BERRYHILL.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

37 Minn. 56

ROBERT M. COLESvs.

CHARLES J. BERRYHILL.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 1, 1887.

Action to determine adverse claims to land in Kanabec county, brought in the district court for that county, and tried by Crosby, J.,

without a jury. The facts found are, in substance, as follows: On September 19, 1870, one George W. Nesbitt entered the land in question at the land-office at Taylor's Falls, and received the receiver's receipt. On August 1, 1871, a patent was issued by the United States to Nesbitt, and was thereafter recorded in the general land-office of the United States. On December 15, 1879, Nesbitt and wife executed and delivered to E. J. Chesley and W. Hammons a quitclaim deed of the land, which deed was recorded in the office of the register of deeds of Kanabec county on January 7, 1886. The plaintiff has by mesne conveyance acquired the interest and title of Chesley and Hammons. On May 4, 1876, John T. Squires and others duly obtained a judgment against Nesbitt for the sum of $226.48. This judgment was docketed in the district court for Kanabec county on September 17, 1885, and on December 18, 1885, by virtue of an execution on this judgment, all the right, title, and interest of Nesbitt in the land was levied on, and was afterwards sold by the sheriff to this defendant. Upon these facts judgment was ordered and entered for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed.

Berryhill & Davison, for appellant.

Hammons & Hammons, for respondent.

MITCHELL, J.¹

If the judgment of Squires against Nesbitt acquired any priority over the unrecorded deed from Nesbitt to plaintiff's grantor, Hammons, it must have been by virtue of the statute regulating the recording of conveyances of real estate; but this statute, by its express terms, makes an unrecorded conveyance void as against a judgment only when the judgment is "against the person in whose name the title to such land appears of record prior to the recording of such conveyance." Gen. St. 1878, c. 40, § 21; Dickinson v. Kinney, 5 Minn. 332, (409, 417;) Golcher v. Brisbin, 20 Minn. 407, (453, 462;) Lebanon Sav. Bank v. Hollenbeck, 29 Minn. 322, (13 N. W. Rep. 145.) It can hardly be necessary to add that the statute has exclusive reference to the title as it appears of record in the office of the register of deeds of the county in which the land is situated, that being the place of record which the statute provides, and the only mode of registry to which it refers. The recording of a patent...