23 Iowa 229 | Iowa | 1867
The statute then in force, provided, that when the sale of school lands was made upon a partial credit, the contract should be reduced to writing, signed by the parties, and filed and recorded in the office of said commissioner. It also provided that it should be lawful for such purchaser or his assignee, at any time to pay the amount due on the contract, and receive a certificate of purchase. Code of 1851, § 1050. The statute recognized the assignability of such contracts, by giving to the' assignee the same rights thereunder, as were given to •the purchaser himself. And it does not provide for, or require the assignment to be filed- or recorded in the office of the commissioner; nor does it make the recording of the contract there, any notice to third persons, .of the rights of parties therein. But the idea of notice to third parties, from such recording, is very directly negatived by the subsequent sections of the same Code of 1851. See § 1211 et seg., Revision of 1860; § 2220 et seg. We conclude, therefore, that the fact of the assignment to Sloan, being upon, the contract filed in the office of the commissioner, while there is none from him, also filed there, does not change or affect the rights of the parties in this case.
Where a purchaser acquires the legal title as well as an equal equity, he is then protected and fortified against the equal equity of his adverse claimant. 1 Story’s Eq. Jur. § 64 and 64 (c).
The equities of the defendant, Penfield, in this case, are of such a character that they are entitled to protection in a court'of equity. See Parker v. Pierce, 16 Iowa, 227; Vannice v. Bergen, 16 Id. 555; Bartle v. Wallace, 21 Id.; Lathrop v. Brown, present term. The case of The Bank, etc., v. Anderson, 14 Iowa, 544, cited by appellant’s counsel, was different from this, in that the legal title was by the records of the county, in the mortgagor, at the date of the mortgage, under a foreclosure of which the defendant claimed.
The doctrine of estoppel, as well as that in relation to diligence, are alike correctly stated by the appellant’s counsel; but, in our view, the facts do not afford a basis
The defendant Penfield acquired his rights, by purchase of the contract, two years and twelve days after the execution sale, and seven months and twenty-four days before the sheriff’s deed was made to the plaintiff. Upon the basis then of constructive notice, even if the assignment in the office of the school fund commissioner was such, the defendant Penfield acquired his rights -without constructive notice even of the plaintiff’s rights, and would be entitled to protection as against plaintiff’s title. In either view of the questions made in the case, the judgment of the District Court must be
Affirmed.