Crane v. Dameron

• Decision Date: 04 November 1889
• Citation: 98 Mo. 567,12 S.W. 251
• Parties: CRANE v. DAMERON.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

12 S.W. 251

98 Mo. 567

CRANE v. DAMERON.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

November 4, 1889.

TAX-TITLE — RECORDS.

A purchaser under a judgment in a back-tax suit, to which the person appearing by the registry of deeds to be the true owner was made a party defendant, in the absence of notice that such person was not the true owner, cannot be protected against the true owner, whose deed was recorded on a record book which was destroyed by fire; but the contents of the book may be proved by secondary evidence, and must be taken notice of by him who claims title under the record.

Appeal from circuit court, Shannon county; J. R. WOODSIDE, Judge.

James Orchard, for appellant. L. B. Woodside, for respondent.

BRACE, J.

Action in ejectment for a tract of land in Shannon county. The land was entered by Cyrus M. Brown in 1858; and on the 10th day of August, 1859, Brown, by warranty deed, conveyed the land to the plaintiff, whose deed was on the 5th day of March, 1860, filed for record in the office of the recorder of said county; and on the 8th of March, 1860, the same was recorded among the land records of said county in Deed Book C, at pages 114 and 115. On the 31st of December, 1871, Deed Book C was destroyed by fire. The taxes on the land for the years 1871 to 1878, inclusive, were assessed to Brown. A suit for delinquent taxes for these years was instituted by the collector of said county against this tract of land, to which Brown was made the party defendant; and on the 6th day of November, 1880, judgment was rendered for the taxes; and on the 5th day of May, 1881, the land was sold under this judgment, the defendant Dameron became the purchaser, received his tax-deed therefor, and put the same on record in said county. The court, before whom the case was tried without a jury, found for the defendant, and plaintiff appeals. The plaintiff was the owner of the land during the years in which it was assessed to Brown. He was the owner when the suit was brought for the delinquent taxes for those years, when the judgment was rendered, and the land sold to the defendant under the judgment; in which suit Brown was defendant, and to which plaintiff was not a party. The law under which this tax suit was brought, required that it should be brought against "the owner of the property." Rev. St. 1879, § 6837. The doctrine announced in Vance v. Corrigan, 78 Mo. 94, and recognized in the subsequent cases cited in Allen v. Ray, 96 Mo. 542, 10 S. W. Rep. 153, that a...