Case v. Fry

91 Iowa 132
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMay 18, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 91 Iowa 132 (Case v. Fry) 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
Case v. Fry, 91 Iowa 132 (iowa 1894).

Opinion

Robinson, J.

In August, 1887, J. H. Bacon was the owner of what was known as the “Bay View Farm,” which contained one thousand, two hundred and seventy-seven acres, and was situated in Lee county. On the twenty-seventh day of that month, he and his wife, Lizzie M. Bacon, executed to James Bullard, Sr., a deed therefor, and at the same time, and as a part of the same transaction, Bullard executed to Bacon a bond for the reconveyance of the land. Such conveyance was to be made on condition that Bacon should pay to Bullard the sum of eleven thousand, two hundred and eighty dollars within three years, with interest at the rate of seven per cent. On the twenty-sixth day of November, 1889, Bacon having become indebted to a number of different persons, he and his wife entered into a contract in writing with several of them, by which Bacon and3-his wife agreed to convey to Joseph A. Smith and M. Case, as trustees, the Bay View farm, for the purpose of enabling them to sell the farm, and pay certain creditors. The amount due Bullard, and all claims for taxes on the land, were to be paid first; then claims held by W. R. Timpe, Luther Adams, and others, in the order stated in the agreement. After the payment of four specified claims, and taxes, the trustees were to receive a commission of fifty dollars each. Then certain judgments against Bacon,'among which was one in favor of Rollett, Arnborn & Company, were to be paid, in the order of their priority. The seventh paragraph of the agreement was as follows: “(7-) After payment of all such claims in full, the trustees shall pay all commissions, costs, and expenses, If any there be, and shall turn over any proceeds there may be remaining, or deed any residue of the land, upon the order of Lizzie M. [134]*134Bacon, in which event this trust shall be satisfied, and the trustees released.” The agreement' further provided that it should be in force and effect for one year from its date, and that “if, at the expiration of that time, the terms and conditions have not been complied with, the parties hereto, as to any land unsold, or to any portion of the claims that may not be paid, can proceed to enforce any and all rights and remedies, the same as if this agreement had never been made and executed. Time is of the essence of this stipulation, it being intended that upon the expiration of the year all parties may proceed at once, so far as this agreement is not. completed, to enforce all their rights, liens, and claims,, with the same force and effect as if this agreement had never been executed.” Bacon and his wife executed to-the trustees a conveyance, as required by the agreement, but no sale of the property, nor of any part of it, was ever made by the trustees. Bullard was not a party to-it, and in September, 1890, he commenced an action to recover the amount due him from Bacon and to-subject the land included in his bond for a deed to its payment. Bacon, his wife, the trustees, the creditors who had signed the agreement, and others, were made-parties defendant; and on the seventeenth day of November, 1890, a decree was rendered in favor of Bullard for the amount due him, and for the foreclosure of the bond. The decree provided for a special execution for the sale of the farm, if the amount found due should not be paid within ten days, and directed that after payment of such amounts the money or1 property remaining should be turned over to the trustees, to be applied according to the terms of the trust agreement.

The amounts found due not having been paid within ten days, a special execution issued; and on the third day of January, 1891, the farm was sold in separate tracts, according to directions given by Bacon, [135]*135the trustees, and creditors who had signed the agreement. The amount realized from the sales was more than the payments required to satisfy the decree of foreclosure, and the excess of one thousand, two hundred and eight dollars and fifty-six cents was paid nominally to the trustees. One hundred dollars were retained, and one thousand, one hundred and eight dollars and fifty-six cents were paid on the claim of W. R. Timpe and Luther Adams. Among the creditors of Bacon, were Rollett, A inborn & Company, who obtained a judgment against him in the superior court of the city of Keokuk for four hundred and fourteen dollars and twenty cents, with interest and costs. A transcript was filed in the proper district court in February, 1889, and the judgment was a lien from that date on the interest of Bacon in the land in question. In October, 1891, plaintiff purchased that judgment, and, by virtue of his ownership of it, redeemed from the foreclosure sale, five eighty-acre tracts, which had been sold separately to- satisfy the decree in favor of Bullard. The sums required to redeem those tracts, and which were paid by the plaintiff, amounted in the aggregate to three thousand, eight hundred and seventy-five dollars and thirty-eight cents. On the twenty-second day of December, 1891, Bacon executed to the defendant a quitclaim deed to two of the five tracts which the plaintiff had redeemed; and on the second day of January, 1892, the defendant, claiming a right to redeem under .his deed from Bacon, paid to the clerk of the proper court one thousand and forty-six dollars and seventy-five cents to redeem from the sale one tract which he claimed, and nine hundred and three dollars and thirty-four cents to redeem the other. The clerk issued to defendant a certificate of redemption, and made an entry of it in the sale-book record. This action is brought to set aside that redemption, and to cancel the record of it. The defendant sets out [136]*136his claim to the land in a counterclaim, and seeks to have his title thereto quieted. The district court dismissed the counterclaim, and granted to plaintiff the relief demanded.

1 I. The appellee contends that defendant did not have such an interest in the land as entitled him to make the redemption attempted. There is no doubt that he acquired, by virtue of the quitclaim deed, whatever interest Bacon had in the land to convey. It is said that he had been divested of all interest in it by the trust agreement and the foreclosure proceedings, and reference is made to the seventh paragraph of the agreement, to sustain the claim. But time is made of the essence of the agreement, which provides, in substance, that it shall cease to be in force, so far as it has not been performed, at the expiration of one year from its date. The provisions of the seventh paragraph in favor of Mrs. Bacon were to take effect after payment in full of all the claims contemplated by the agreement, with commissions, costs, and expenses; and, as such payment was not made, Mrs. Bacon never became entitled to anything by virtue of that paragraph. It is true the decree of foreclosure recognized the trust agreement, and that money appears to have been paid to the trustees in consequence; but the scope and effect of that agreement were not involved in the foreclosure proceedings, and no attempt to extend it beyond the year for which it, in terms, provided was made. When the decree was rendered, that year was not at an end. The surplus realized from the sale of the farm was paid to the trustees after the year had ended, and was applied on claims for which the agreement provided; but that appears to have been managed chiefly if not wholly, by the plaintiff, as an attorney for parties interested, and can not be given the effect of extending the agreement. We conclude that Mrs. Bacon was not the owner, in [137]

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Bluebook (online)
91 Iowa 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/case-v-fry-iowa-1894.