163 Iowa 708 | Iowa | 1913
The trial court made findings as follows:
That on June 9, 1906, the defendant herein obtained a tax deed, to some land in the state of Nebraska, which was duly filed for record on June 16, 1906, and the defendant herein entered into possession of said premises and has been in the peaceable possession thereof ever since, by himself, his tenants, and grantee. That the original owners of said premises abandoned said land about twenty-eight years ago, and so far as shown by the evidence have never made any claim to said premises since. That on January 30, 1895, one Charles O. Nourse obtained a tax deed to said premises, which deed was duly recorded, and he remained the record owner until the deed to this defendant was recorded as above stated. That defendant served notice upon said Charles O. Nourse, when defendant obtained his deed, and upon no one else. That on October 18, 1907, the defendant sold and conveyed said premises to plaintiff herein, by warranty deed, which was duly recorded. That plaintiff sold said premises under a contract to one Frank R. Levine, which contract was assigned to one Mark L. Williams, who made objections to the title of this plaintiff, and thereupon plaintiff obtained quitclaim deeds from the heirs of the original owners, there being three of such deeds, for the express consideration in each deed of $1, and now brings this suit against defendant for $150, and claiming a breach of warranty under defendant’s warranty deed to him. What the outlay was for does not clearly appear either in the petition or in the evidence on the trial; but upon the trial the plaintiff only claims $100, instead of the amount set out
Under the laws of Nebraska, the right to attack the tax deed to Nourse dated and recorded January 30, 1895, expired by limitations in five years thereafter. There is no evidence to show that this was not a valid deed. Nourse was the owner, and notice on him as owner was sufficient under the Nebraska law. The evidence sustains the findings of fact, and in our opinion the trial court correctly determined the legal questions. We shall not set out the evidence.' Without the'testimony of the witness Swaine, plaintiff has not made out a case. We shall notice briefly some of the matters referred to in the petition and evidence, but not urged in the points and errors relied upon for reversal. One of these is the claim of appellant that the treasurer’s tax deed of June 9, 1906, had no treasurer’s seal attached, and that, if it had, the laws of Nebraska
To illustrate the general character of the evidence of this witness, we quote one of his answers:
This witness was an attorney and is the person to whom the $100 was paid. The proper objection, of course, would have been that his evidence as to what the records, notice, etc., show, was not the best evidence; that conclusions of the witness were given; and that he put himself in the attitude of deciding the ease for the court. It is quite clear that some of this is not the best evidence, some of it is the conclusion of the witness, and even an expert may not decide the case for the court. Sever v. Railway, 156 Iowa, 664.
Appellant contends that the evidence is competent under the ruling in Coulton’s Estate, 129 Iowa, 542, and like cases, where it was held that a witness might testify that the records did not show a decree; that proof of a negative could be so shown. -But here the witness testified to what the records did show.
In our opinion the judgment of the district court was right, and it is Affirmed.