Laraway v. Zenor

69 N.W. 416, 100 Iowa 181
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 10, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 69 N.W. 416 (Laraway v. Zenor) 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
Laraway v. Zenor, 69 N.W. 416, 100 Iowa 181 (iowa 1896).

Opinion

Given, J.

L. As stated by counsel for plaintiff, the only question in the -case is, not whether the plaintiff could have been removed under the writ of possession in the suit against her husband, nor whether [183]*183the injunction procured by her should have been vacated, but whether the plaintiff, or the intervener, is the true owner of the property. It is admitted by plaintiff that the patent, or government title, is in the intervener, and that the sole question for determination by this court, is that of the validity of the claim of plaintiff to ownership by adverse possession. Plain - tiff’s claim rests upon the following facts: G. W. Rowley entered into a contract in writing, July 27, 1874, with Edwin C. Litchfield, the then owner of the eighty acres of land in controversy, for the purchase of the same for.one thousand dollars, to be paid part in cash, and the balance in eight equal annual payments, with interest, payments commencing on the first day of January, 1876. Said contract provides that the same will become forfeited by non-payment of any of said installments, or the taxes. Rowley took and held possession of the land until December 16, 1874, when, with the consent of Edwin C..Litchfield, he assigned said contract to A. A. Wilson, who agreed to fully perform the covenants thereof. Mr. Wilson went into possession of the land, and continued to occupy it until his death, October 19, 1877. On this contract, interest was paid as follows: February, 1875, twenty dollars; January, 1876, twenty-five dollars; and January, 1877, one hundred dollars. No other payments were made. July 15, 1878, Fannie Wilson, widow, Carrie E. Clark, daughter, and Isaac Clark, her husband, sole heirs of A. A. Wilson, with the consent of Edwin C. Litchfield, assigned said contract to Isaac Laraway, h.usband of plaintiff, he agreeing to perform all the covenants thereof. Soon thereafter, Isaac Laraway and the plaintiff, with their family, went to live on said land, and have ever since resided thereon. Intervener Edward H. Litchfield became seized of the interest of his father in said land on his death. Isaae Laraway failed to make any of the [184]*184payments called for by said contract, by reason of which it became forfeited by its terms. On August 26, 1879, Isaac Laraway entered into an agreement in writing with intervener for the purchase of said land for the consideration of one thousand three hundred dollars. One hundred and thirty dollars of this amount was to be paid January 1, 1881, and the balance in nine equal annual payments commencing January 1, 1882, with interest. This contract also provides that it shall become forfeited by failure to pay any of the installments or taxes. Isaac Laraway failed to make any payments whatever upon this contract. Isaac Laraway having failed to make the payment due January 1, 1881, intervener, on January 24,1881, brought an action against him to recover possession of the land, and recovered judgment therefor, December 7, 1886. A writ to place Edward H. Litchfield in possession was issued on that judgment, and this action was originally brought to restrain the execution of that writ. Thus far it is entirely clear that plaintiff has no interest or possession of the land except as wife of Isaac Laraway, and that that interest and right of possession has been fully forfeited. Plaintiff- alleges, as the basis of her ownership and right to possession of the land, as follows: That on and prior to the third day of August, 1878, she was the sole owner of a certain tract of land in Missouri; that on that day, in pursuance of an agreement between her and the said widow and heirs of A. A. Wilson, deceased, she conveyed to said Fannie Wilson, said Missouri land; that in consideration thereof, said Fannie Wilson, Carrie E. Clark, and Isaac Clark conveyed to her by deed all their right, title, and interest in and to the land in question; and that soon thereafter she took, and ever since has held, possession under and by virtue of said deed of conveyance. No such deed is produced, and plaintiff’s claim is that it in some way became lost before being [185]*185recorded, while intervener contends that no such deed was ever executed; and herein we have the controlling contention in this case. It further appears that on the thirtieth day of December, 1880, Isaac Laraway, for the recited consideration of seven hundred dollars, executed to his wife an absolute bill of sale of certain farm implements, one heifer, turkeys, chickens, eighteen hundred bushels of corn, and one hundred bushels of oats, “now in the possession of said Cascilda Lara way in the county of Boone and state of-Iowa.” This was recorded December 81, 1880. On the thirtieth day of December, 1880, Isaac Laraway also executed to his wife, for the recited consideration of nine hundred and seventy-five dollars in hand paid, a quit-claim deed for one hundred and sixty acres of land, including the land in question, which deed was recorded on the same day. Isaac Laraway had no claim whatever to the eighty, other than that in suit, except under a lease.

II. Prior to August 8, 1878, these parties had negotiated and agreed upon an exchange of Mrs. Laraway’s Missouri land, for the Wilson interest in the land in controversy, and on that day met at the office of Cardell & Shortly, in Perry, Iowa, to complete the deal. Plaintiff contends that on that day Mrs. Wilson and Mr. and Mrs. Clark, executed to her a quit-claim deed for the land in controversy, in consideration of her deed to Mrs. Wilson for the Missouri land. There is a conflict in the evidence as to whether a deed was executed to the plaintiff, and we think the preponderance is in favor of the conclusion that there was not. There was no necessity for such a deed. The only interest that the Wilson heirs had was under the Rowley contract, and this interest would be fully transferred by an assignment of the contract. The Wilson heirs, either then or theretofore, assigned the Rowley contract to Isaac Laraway, and therefore were [186]*186not likely to make a deed to Mrs. Lara way. It is true the assignment to Isaac Larawáy and the consent of Mr. Litchfield thereto, are dated at Ogden, Iowa, July 15, 1878; but we are satisfied that the assignment and the agreement to perform the conditions of the contract were written, ready for signatures, at Ogden, where the consent of Mr. Litchfield’s agent had to be obtained, and that they were dated to correspond with The date of the consent. Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Clark testified that they signed but one paper on August 8, and this, we have no doubt, was the assignment of the Rowley contract to Isaac Lara way. We are strengthened in the conclusion that no deed was executed to the plaintiff from the fact that none is produced, nor its absence satisfactorily accounted for. The plaintiff insists that she had no knowledge of the Rowley con- • tract, nor of the assignments thereof, nor of the contract between Mr. Litchfield and her husband. In ■ view of the relation of Mr. and Mrs. Laraway, and all the facts and circumstances proven, it seems to us •' incredible that she did not know of these transactions. We are convinced that Mrs. Lara way conveyed her ’ Missouri land, in consideration of the assignment of the Rowley contract to her husband, and with full knowledge as to the nature of the contract, and that the transfer was to him. This being true, her posses- ' sion, as well as her husband’s, was not adverse to, but : under the contract with, Mr. Litchfield. If the inter- ■ est of the Wilson heirs had been transferred by deed - to Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
69 N.W. 416, 100 Iowa 181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laraway-v-zenor-iowa-1896.