Carroll v. Kit Carson Land Co.

24 Colo. App. 217
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 1913
DocketNo. 3645
StatusPublished

This text of 24 Colo. App. 217 (Carroll v. Kit Carson Land Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carroll v. Kit Carson Land Co., 24 Colo. App. 217 (Colo. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Morgan, J.

[218]*218This appeal is from a judgment of the Kit Carson district court against the plaintiffs in an action to quiet title to a quarter-section of land. The defendant relied upon two tax deeds, and a decree obtained thereupon in a prior action 'to quiet title against plaintiffs ’ grantor, instituted after plaintiffs received their deed from him for the land, but before they recorded it. They were not parties to the suit in which the said decree was obtained, and the default of their grantor was entered therein on service by publication.

The judgment should be reversed. The tax deeds were void, as held by the lower court, when offered in evidence by the defendant. The decree, pleaded, was of no effect as to the plaintiffs here, because they were not parties to that suit, and were not bound by the decree therein made for any other reason. A deed, though not recorded, is valid between the parties to it, and conveys the title absolutely, except that it shall not take effect, as required by our recording act, until filed for record, “as to subsequent bona fide purchasers and encumbrancers by mortgage, judgment or otherwise not having notice thereof” (Rev. Stat. 1908, Sec. 694), and except as to the effect such recording act may have upon the statute concerning notice of a suit pending, commonly called “notice of lis pendens,” which provides that, ‘ ‘ Only from the time of filing such notice shall the pend-ency of the action, suit or proceeding, be constructive -notice of the action, suit or proceeding, to a purchaser or encumbrancer of the property described in the complaint, petition or answer.” — Code of Civ. Proc., Rev. St. 1908, p. 80, Sec. 38. The defendant does not come within the class of persons protected by these provisions. It was not a subsequent bona fide purchaser or encumbrancer under the recording act, nor was it in a position, under the prior suit in which the decree, pleaded, was [219]*219made, to profit by plaintiffs ’ failure to record tbeir deed. These statutes should not be strained nor extended beyond the legislative intent or the words used, so as to include anything not therein specified. Even if the recording act, Sec. 694, supra, were broad enough to include, or if it had contained, in addition to purchasers and encumbrancers, persons instituting actions and filing notice of suit pending, it would not, even then, avail the defendant, plaintiff in the prior suit, anything, because it did not obtain title from the same grantor, as distinctly pointed ont in the following authorities.

The defendant here, as plaintiff in the prior suit, claimed title under a purchase from the county at a tax sale, and the decree, pleaded, was obtained by virtue of such purchase. Its interest was not derived from, nor connected with, the estate conveyed by the unrecorded deed, within the meaning of the exceptions in our recording* act. — Tinsley v. Atlantic Mines Co., 20 Colo. App., 61, 77 Pac., 12.

In the case just cited, the court, quoting, said (p. 63) :

“A tax title, from its very nature, has nothing to do with the previous chain of title; does not in any way connect itself with it. It is a breaking up of all previous titles. The party holding such title, in proving it, goes no further than his tax deed; the former title can be' of .no service to him, nor can it prejudice him.”

And, defining the effect and purpose of our recording act, our supreme court has said:

“A deed duly recorded is constructive notice of its existence, and of its contents, to all persons claiming what is thereby conveyed under the same grantor by subsequent purchase or mortgage, but not to other persons. — 3 ’Wash. R. P., 319, Sec. 53. In the case of Maul v. Rider, 59 Penn., 167, Sharswood, J., says: ‘That the [220]*220record of a deed is constructive notice to all the world, •is too broad an enunciation of the doctrine. Such record is constructive notice only to those who are bound to search for it as subsequent purchasers and mortgagees, and all others who deal with it on the credit of the title in the line of which the recorded deed belongs.’ — Gillett et al. v. Gaffney et al., 3 Colo., 366, cited in Smith v. Russell, 20 Colo. App., 554, 558, 80 Pac., 474, and in Judd v. Robinson, 41 Colo., 222, 229, 92 Pac., 724.

In the case of Hallett v. Alexander, 50 Colo., 37, 45, 114 Pac., 490, our supreme court, through Justice White, discussing Section 694, supra, said:

“It is claimed the contest here is not between claimants from á common source of title, and that the .statute operates, and is intended to operate, only in such cases. We are persuaded that the statute applies only as between claimants from a common source of title.”

It was also said by Cooley, J., in Smith v. Williams, 44 Mich., 240, 242, 243, 244:

“The defendants below, to show title in themselves, offered in evidence the enrolled record and proceedings in a cause, *. ' *\ * instituted by Sextus N. Wilcox as complainant against Byron F. Squires as defendant, * * * in which Wilcox claimed title to the land under certain alleged conveyances on sales thereof for delinquent taxes, and prayed the court of chancery to quiet his title as agajnst the claims of Squires. It appeared from the enrollment that Squires was proceeded against as a non-resident; that he was brought in by publication, and did not enter an appearance or file any pleading, and that a decree that the title of Wilcox to the premises be quieted as against any claim of Squires was entered. * * *
“It will be observed that Byron F. Squires alone was made defendant in the chancery suit, and that he [221]*221had at the time no title to the land. The decree was that he he thereafter precluded from asserting title, and we are not informed that he does so. Obviously the claim of title which the complainant made was to Squires a matter of indifference, since it could not in any manner affect his interests. The tax titles had accrued after he conveyed, and enforcing them neither took from him anything, nor made him liable upon his covenant. Therefore, if knowledge of the suit had come to him, he would probably have given it no attention, because the result of it could not concern him. The decree as to him might as well have been left unmade.
“It is said, however, that this suit against a party who had no interest to be affected by it, and no occasion to defend it, has been effectual to cut off the right of the party actually concerned, and who probably never heard of it until the decree was presented which was to be conclusive against him. The only reason- given for this position is that the plaintiff, by not recording her deed, and suffering Byron F. Squires to appear of record as apparent owner, ‘has allowed him to appear to the world as the owner of the land now sought to be recovered by her, ’ so that ‘ Squires ’ day in court was her day, and she must accept the consequences of her .own act.’ It is, then, upon her failure to place the evidence of her title upon record that this effect of the decree upon her rights is to depend.
“The general rule that a judgment or decree binds those only who are parties to it is not disputed.

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Related

Hallett v. Alexander
114 P. 490 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1911)
Collingwood v. . Brown
10 S.E. 868 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1890)
Warnock v. Harlow
31 P. 166 (California Supreme Court, 1892)
Gillett v. Gaffney
3 Colo. 351 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1877)
Judd v. Robinson
41 Colo. 222 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1907)
Norton v. Birge
35 Conn. 250 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1868)
Hoyt v. Jones
31 Wis. 389 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1872)
Columbia Bank v. Jacobs
10 Mich. 349 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1862)
Grant v. Bennett
96 Ill. 513 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1880)
Tinsley v. Atlantic Mines Co.
20 Colo. App. 61 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1904)
Smith v. Russell
20 Colo. App. 554 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1905)
Millar v. Babcock
29 Mich. 526 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1874)
Smith v. Williams
6 N.W. 662 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1880)
Hammond v. Paxton
25 N.W. 321 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1885)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 Colo. App. 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carroll-v-kit-carson-land-co-coloctapp-1913.