165 Iowa 134 | Iowa | 1913
I. Plaintiff who is the appellant, brought action at law to recover damages for alleged fraudulent representations and concealment of the appellees in the trade of real estate. At the conclusion of plaintiff’s evidence the trial court directed a verdict for the defendants, and, from the judgment entered against him for costs, the plaintiff appeals.
II. The principal charge of error is that the evidence in support of plaintiff’s claim was such as to require the submission of the cause to the jury. It appears that the appellees were, prior to October 15, 1907, the owners of a tax deed, which conveyed to them by tax title forty-eight acres of land in Mills county, Iowa. The title of the land at the time of the assessment of taxes for which it was sold and at the time of the issuance of the tax deed was in one R. H. Kesterson. The transaction between the parties to this action was in pursuance of a contract entered into between them October 15, 1907, under which, in consideration of the quitclaim deed for the forty-eight acres, the appellant was to convey to the appellees a town lot in Red Oak, which the evidence shows was of the value of $1,000, and also pay $100 at the time of executing the contract, and $150 at the time of the delivery of the quitclaim deeds. In the contract appears the provision that the “party of the first part guarantee that the tax deed upon which the title to the above land is based is regular and in accordance with the laws and requirements of Iowa. ’ ’ The contract was concluded according to its terms about November 12, 1907; the deed to the appellant being received by him with grantee’s name omitted, that space being left blank for the insertion of such name as he might afterward desire. The value of the land described in the quitclaim deed is shown to have been about $4,800. The appellant was at the time a dealer in real estate. In connection with others he made several efforts to dispose of the real estate, having the deed in question under his control, or in the hands of parties whom he had interested for the purpose of trade. He commenced this action on November 10, 1911, which was four years after the date of the delivery of the deed to him.
The particular fraud upon which appellant relies is that at the time of the contract and the subsequent execution
In this case there was knowledge on the part of the appellant that proceedings had been instituted against Kesterson. Their nature may not have been fully explained to him; but he had full opportunity to inquire into and learn the condition of the ease, and what it involved, as claims against the title under the tax deed. No statement was made by the appellees to him which was deceptive or calculated to mislead him in any inquiry he might make. He knew that Kesterson was in actual possession of the land, and as a prospective purchaser was bound to take notice of the claim under which such possession was held, especially when it was apparently adverse to the right under which he was ex
Judge Wheeler was not called as a witness to testify to his own observations and conclusions as to Kesterson’s mental capacity, which would have been competent, but only as
The judgment of the trial court is — Affirmed.