Bates v. Mullins

274 N.W. 117, 223 Iowa 1000
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 15, 1937
DocketNo. 43779.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 274 N.W. 117 (Bates v. Mullins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bates v. Mullins, 274 N.W. 117, 223 Iowa 1000 (iowa 1937).

Opinion

Kintzinger, J.

The plaintiff, as receiver of the Redfield Savings Bank of Redfield, Iowa, commenced this action against the defendant, George Mullins, and codefendant, William H. Morrison, to quiet title to a large tract of land in Dallas County, Iowa. In his answer and counterclaim, the defendant Mullins claims to be the owner of said land, and asks that the title therein be quieted in him. The intervenor Morrison alleges that he has purchased the land in question under a contract from defendant Mullins, and asks that his rights be protected.

There is no dispute about the facts in this ease. Prom the record it appears that George Mullins, the defendant, was, on or prior to October 4,1928, the owner of the real estate in question. On October 4, 1928, he executed a mortgage of $3,000 to F. E. Hunter- on part of the land in question, and on the same date executed another mortgage of $6,500 to said Hunter upon the balance of the land. Both mortgages were duly recorded.

Thereafter, on August 22, 1932, plaintiff commenced an action, aided by attachment, against the defendant Mullins on a promissory note, and secured judgment against defendant, on said note in the sum of $4,408. A special execution was issued under said judgment on January 18, 1933, and the property was sold thereunder .to the plaintiff on February 20, 1933, for $350. Other real estate belonging to defendant was also sold to satisfy the balance of plaintiff’s judgment.

On October 17, 1932, Hunter commenced two actions to foreclose the mortgages .executed to him in October, 1928, and secured judgment and decree therein against Mullins in the sum of $3,365.42 in one of the actions, and a judgment and decree of $7,081.92 in .the other.

*1002 Plaintiff was a party defendant in both of said actions, and in the decrees of foreclosure, plaintiff’s lien on the property in question under the certificate of sale issued to him on February 20, 1933, was declared junior and inferior to Hunter’s liens under the mortgage foreclosures.

On March 1, 1933, a special execution was issued for the sale of the land in question under the two foreclosure decrees, and the real estate in question covered by said mortgages was sold to F. E. Hunter on April 1, 1933, and a sheriff’s certificate of sale of said real estate was executed to him on the same day in each of said cases.

No redemption from said sale was made by the plaintiff within nine months or even within one year after April 1, 1933, when Hunter received his certificates of sale in his foreclosure proceedings. In fact, no attempt was ever made by plaintiff to redeem said real estate from said foreclosure sales.

On May 10, 1934, Hunter duly assigned his sale certificates to defendant Mullins, and such certificates were by him surrendered to the clerk of the district court, and the following entry was made by the clerk on the sales record of said court:

“May 10, 1934. Redeemed by surrender of "certificates by George Mullins, assignee and holder of Sheriff’s certificates hereto attached. (Signed by the Clerk).”

The record also shows that said defendant, on or about May 10, 1934, executed a first mortgage of $9,000 to the Federal Land Bank of Omaha, Nebraska, and a second mortgage to the Land Bank Commissioner for $4,000, both of which were duly recorded.

The record also shows that the defendant Mullins, on September 13, 1935, entered into a contract of sale of all of said property to the intervenor, William H. Morrison, and that said contract was duly recorded.

On May 10, 1934, plaintiff obtained a sheriff’s deed on the certificate of sale issued to him on February 20, 1933. Plaintiff bases his claim to have his title quieted in the land in question upon this deed. Defendant Mullins asked to have his title quieted in said land against the plaintiff and subject only to the rights of the intervenor and the two mortgages executed to the Federal Land Bank of Omaha and the Land Bank Commissioner in the sum of $9,000 and $4,000, respectively, upon the ground *1003 that plaintiff failed to make statutory redemption from the Hunter foreclosure sales within the time required by statute.

The record also shows that the defendant made a request for a deed from plaintiff before filing his counterclaim or cross-petition to. quiet -title in him.

Plaintiff was also made a party defendant in the foreclosure proceedings commenced by Hunter, and the lower court decreed that whatever rights the plaintiff had in said property by reason of his certificate of sale were junior and inferior to Hunter’s mortgages. The court found in favor of defendant Mullins as prayed, and entered judgment against plaintiff for costs. Plaintiff appeals.

The only question for consideration in this case, therefore, is whether or not the lien obtained by plaintiff under the execution sale to him on February 20, 1933, was extinguished because of his failure to redeem from the sales to Hunter in his foreclosure proceedings on April 1, 1933.

Appellee contends that plaintiff’s right to redeem expired within nine months after April 1, 1933, or by January 1, 1934. This contention is supported by the following cases: Cooper v. Maurer, 122 Iowa 321, 98 N. W. 124; Francestown Savings Bank v. Silver, 122 Iowa 685, 98 N. W. 498; Danford v. Lindsey, 178 Iowa 834, 160 N. W. 318; Pierce v. White, 204 Iowa 1116, 216 N. W. 764; Tirrill v. Miller, 206 Iowa 426, 218 N. W. 303; Paulsen v. Jensen, 209 Iowa 453, 228 N. W. 357.

There is, however, authority for the statement that after a judgment lienholder purchases the property at an execution sale and receives a sheriff’s deed therefor, he is entitled to twelve months within which to redeem, on the theory that he then is entitled to the rights of the defendant under section 11774 of the Code of 1935. Thayer v. Coldren, 57 Iowa 110, 10 N. W. 300; Kendig v. McCall, 133 Iowa 180, 110 N. W. 458, 119 Am. St. Rep. 594.

In Kendig v. McCall, 133 Iowa 180, loc. cit. 183, 110 N. W. 458, 459, 119 Am. St. Rep. 594, this court said:

“In Thayer v. Coldren, * * * it was held that, under section 3102, of the Code of 1873, slightly differing in language from the corresponding provision of section 4045 of the present Code [1897], ‘the defendant’ who was entitled to redeem within one year from the date of the sale included the person who was the' *1004 owner of the land to be redeemed. In that case it was said that, while there was no provision expressly authorizing the vendee of an execution defendant to redeem from a sheriff’s sale, such right was secured to him under the provision authorizing redemption by the/defendant’.”

In the case at bar, however, plaintiff did not receive a deed until long after his right to redeem had expired.

It is unnecessary, however, to consider this question here, because plaintiff failed to redeem within one year after the foreclosure sales to Hunter on April 1, 1933. Therefore, under either rule, plaintiff’s right of redemption had expired because he did not make redemption from the senior lienholder within twelve months after the foreclosure sales to Hunter on April 1, 1933.

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Related

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294 N.W. 274 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1940)

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274 N.W. 117, 223 Iowa 1000, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bates-v-mullins-iowa-1937.