Dutton v. J. A. McReynolds
| Decision Date | 18 July 1883 |
| Citation | 16 N.W. 468,31 Minn. 66 |
| Parties | Nelson L. Dutton v. J. A. McReynolds |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Plaintiff brought this action in the district court for Steele county, alleging himself to be owner in fee of certain lands in that county, and praying that a judgment and an execution sale, under which defendant claimed title to the lands, be set aside and declared to be not a lien thereon. A jury was waived, and the action tried by Buckham, J., who found the facts to be as stated in the opinion, and ordered judgment in favor of defendant. Plaintiff appeals from an order refusing a new trial.
Order affirmed.
Wheelock & Sperry, for appellant.
A. C Hickman, for respondent.
The plaintiff sold and conveyed a tract of land to Isaac W Ferguson, Stephen Ferguson, and Dana P. Sawyer, taking back a mortgage from the grantees upon the same land to secure the purchase price, $ 3,000. The deed and mortgage were recorded. Afterwards, in October, 1876, the two Fergusons conveyed to Sawyer, their co-tenant, by deed of quitclaim, all their title in the land. This deed was not recorded until October 1879. After this conveyance to Sawyer, but before the recording of the deed, viz., in May, 1878, the defendant, who had not then actual notice of the conveyance from Ferguson to Sawyer, recorded and docketed a judgment against Isaac W. Ferguson and one Ruliffson for the recovery of the sum of $ 45. At the time of the docketing of the judgment, Sawyer was occupying the land in question, no other person being in the actual occupancy of the premises. No part of the purchase price secured by the mortgage was paid, and in October, 1879, Sawyer reconveyed the land to the plaintiff, without other consideration than the surrender of the notes given for the purchase price. The plaintiff, receiving and recording this deed of conveyance, then (October, 1879,) discharged the mortgage, having no actual knowledge of the judgment against Ferguson, or of the lien thereby created. In February, 1881, the defendant caused the land to be sold under execution issued upon his judgment, and became himself the purchaser, at the price of $ 77.17. The only relief specifically prayed for in the complaint is the setting aside of the execution sale, and an adjudication that the judgment was not a lien upon this land. The general prayer for relief is added. The plaintiff now asserts an equitable right to have his mortgage reinstated as a subsisting lien superior to that of the judgment.
The judgment against Ferguson (the creditor having no notice of the conveyance made by him) became a lien at the time of its docketing upon the undivided one-third of the land. The title had been in Ferguson, and it so appeared of record. The unrecorded deed by which his interest had been conveyed to Sawyer was void as to the judgment creditor. Gen. St. 1878, c. 40, § 21.
The occupancy by Sawyer alone did not constitute notice to the...
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