United States v. Ryan

• Decision Date: 29 September 1954
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 2400.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Kenneth S. RYAN, Minnesota Federal Savings and Loan Association, Ralph D. Peltz, Edward C. Engdahl and the City of St. Paul, Defendants.

124 F. Supp. 1

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Kenneth S. RYAN, Minnesota Federal Savings and Loan Association, Ralph D. Peltz, Edward C. Engdahl and the City of St. Paul, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 2400.

United States District Court D. Minnesota, Third Division.

September 29, 1954.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

George T. Rita, Sp. Asst. to the Atty. Gen., and George E. MacKinnon, U. S. Atty. for State of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., for plaintiff.

John B. Burke, of Scott, Burke & Scott, St. Paul, Minn., for defendant Minnesota Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n.

Moritz J. Blomquist, of Randall, Smith, Blomquist & Krawetz, St. Paul, Minn., for defendants Ralph D. Peltz and Edward C. Engdahl.

BELL, District Judge.

This suit involves real estate registered under the Torrens System of land registration in Minnesota. It is to establish and enforce certain liens and claims, for the foreclosure thereof and to obtain a judgment and decree of this Court that the defendants Ralph D. Peltz and Edward C. Engdahl purchased the real estate subject to the lien claimed by the United States.

Answers were interposed on behalf of the defendants Minnesota Federal Savings and Loan Association, Peltz and Engdahl. Defendants Kenneth S. Ryan and the City of St. Paul are in default for failure to answer or otherwise appear in the action. The plaintiff and answering defendants filed motions for a summary judgment.

A stipulation of the facts was made by the plaintiff and the answering defendants and it follows that there can be no error in this case in entering summary judgment. Rule 56(b), Fed.Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.; Elgin, J. & E. Ry. Co. v. Burley, 325 U.S. 711, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 89 L.Ed. 1886.

The only issues remaining for determination by the Court involve questions of law. The ultimate issue can be resolved into a single question. Does plaintiff have a lien against the property?

It is the claim of the defendants that the plaintiff, in the first instance, did not take proper steps to perfect a lien as required by the laws of the United States and the State of Minnesota, and that, because of its failure properly to file notice of its alleged lien, the plaintiff did not acquire a lien against the property. It is also the claim of the defendants that by virtue of the foreclosure of the prior mortgage held by Minnesota Federal Savings and Loan Association, followed by a decree of the State District Court directing the issuance of a new certificate of title, the plaintiff has lost its right to perfect a claim of lien and is estopped from asserting any interest in the property.

Plaintiff contends that the filing of a notice of tax lien, by name only, in the office of the register of deeds was sufficient to create a lien against property registered under the Torrens System.

As this action involves the title to property registered under the Torrens System of land registration, adopted by the State of Minnesota in 1901, Chapter 237, Laws of Minnesota 1901, and amendments thereof, now Chapter 508, Minnesota Statutes Annotated, a brief history of the Torrens System and its purpose is deemed necessary and in order.

The Torrens System, so called, is a result of an idea and the work of Sir Robert Richard Torrens, born in Ireland in 1814, educated in Trinity College, Dublin, collector of customs at Adelaide in 1841, and afterwards the first premier of South Australia. His idea was to apply the principles of registration of ownership in ships under the English law known as the "Merchants Shipping Act" to registration of title to lands. That is, to have land ownership conclusively evidenced by certificate and thereby made determinable and transferable quickly, cheaply and safely.

The idea gained favor in Australia, resulting in the framing of what became known as the Torrens Act and the adoption of the system in practically all Australia not later than 1870.

The Torrens Law, as originally drafted, has been greatly modified in the statutes enacted in the United States, but the salient feature of registration by certificate has been retained, and the law is usually referred to as the Torrens Law wherever statutes providing for registration of title to land have been enacted in this country. Statutes embodying the basic principles of the Torrens System of land registration by certificate have been enacted in nineteen states of the United States.

The registration of the title to property results in the transferring of a title from the recording act system to the certificate system, provided by the Torrens Law, by a judicial proceeding in the nature of a suit to quiet title against all persons, both known and unknown, who could by any possibility assert an adverse interest. In the State of Minnesota the registration of titles is under the jurisdiction of the District Court. The original registration, and all subsequent involuntary transfers of title, is accomplished by obtaining a decree of the Court followed by the issuance of a certificate of title thereunder.

"The official certificate will always show the state of the title and the person in whom it is vested. The basic principle of the system is the registration of the title to the land, instead of registering, as under the old system, the evidence of such title." In re Bickel, 301 Ill. 484, 134 N.E. 76, 80.

In the case of an involuntary transfer, such as a mortgage foreclosure, there is a radical difference from the procedure which applies to a voluntary transfer in that the registrar cannot, upon the filing with him of documents purporting to make an involuntary transfer, recognize any such transfer unless and until he receives an order of court directing the action which he shall take. These orders are all based upon a final adjudication determining the rights of all parties involved. The conclusiveness of the certificate is based upon an order or decree of court and upon statutes of limitation, M.S.A. §§ 508.26 and 508.28. It is clearly evident that, when a certificate of title has been issued by the registrar of titles pursuant to a decree of the District Court the decree is binding upon the entire world, subject only to the right of appeal allowed for a period of six months by M.S.A. § 508.28.

The purpose of the Torrens Law is to establish an indefeasible title free from any and all rights or claims not registered with the registrar of titles, with certain exceptions not important here, M.S.A. § 508.25, to the end that anyone may deal with such property with the assurance that the only rights or claims of which he need take notice are those registered. The law was framed to accomplish that purpose, and it establishes rules in respect to registered land which differ widely from those which apply in case of unregistered land. It provides that the holder of a certificate of title to registered land "shall hold the same free from all encumbrances and adverse claims," excepting only those noted on the last certificate of title.

At the outset it should be pointed out that under 26 U.S.C.A. § 3672, as amended in 1942, it is provided that a federal tax lien shall not be valid as against any mortgagee, pledgee, purchaser or judgment creditor until notice thereof has been filed by the Collector. The pertinent part of this section is:

"a. Invalidity of lien without notice. Such lien shall not be valid as against any mortgagee, pledgee, purchaser, or judgment creditor until notice thereof has been filed by the collector —

"(1) * * * In the office in which the filing of such notice is authorized by the law of the State or Territory in which the property subject to the lien is situated, whenever the State or Territory has by law authorized the filing of such notice in an office within the State or Territory".

The State of Minnesota has by statute authorized the filing of such notices, and the laws of the State of Minnesota must be complied with if a valid lien is to be obtained in any case. Because the property involved in this action is registered property, the laws of the State of Minnesota which deal with registered property have application and are controlling here.

M.S.A. § 272.48, provides as follows:

"The filing and recording in the office of the register of deeds of any county in this state of notices of liens for taxes due the United States and discharges and releases of such liens is hereby authorized."

M.S.A. § 508.48, provides as follows:

"Every conveyance, lien, attachment, order, decree, or judgment, or other instrument or proceeding, which would affect the title to unregistered land under existing laws, if recorded, or filed with the register of deeds, shall, in like manner, affect the title to registered land if filed and registered with the registrar in the county where the real estate is situated, and shall be notice to all persons from the time of such registering or filing."

M.S.A. § 508.64, provides as follows:

"Attachments and liens of every description upon registered land shall be continued, reduced, discharged, and dissolved by any method sufficient therefor in the case of unregistered land. All certificates, writings, or other instruments permitted or required by law to be filed or recorded to give effect to the enforcement, continuance, reduction, discharge, or dissolution of attachments or other liens upon unregistered land or to give notice of the same, shall, in the case of like liens upon registered land, be filed with the registrar."

M.S.A. § 508.30, provides as follows:

"Registers of deeds shall be the registrars of titles in their respective counties."

The form of certificate of title prescribed by M.S.A. § 508.25, contains six exceptions. The plaintiff contends that one of the exceptions applies to the issue involved herein. That exception reads as follows:

"(1) Liens, claims, or rights arising or existing under the laws or the constitution of the United States, which this state cannot require to appear of record".

However, the claim...