78 Iowa 528 | Iowa | 1889
I. The undisputed facts of the case are these: Hoover and another, being indebted to McFarland, defendant, in large sums, which were secured by certain trust deeds executed by the debtors, on the seventeenth day of April, 1885, executed, in the form prescribed by statute, a confession or warrant authorizing a judgment to be entered against the debtors in favor of the creditors, and a decree foreclosing the rights of redemption under ' the deeds of trust. The confession of judgment prescribes that execution shall
II. In our opinion, the decree of the district court is not authorized by the facts of the case. We think the rights of the parties as to the redemption are not determined by the statute prescribing redemptions under judicial sales, but rather by the decree of the court entered in the proceeding by confession in favor of defendant. The statute provides that redemption may be made in cases therein contemplated. It cannot be claimed that these provisions defeat redemptions authorized by the agreements of the parties to the action, and provided for by the decrees made therein, when such agreements and decrees are not in conflict with the provisions of the statute. It cannot be doubted that parties to an action of foreclosure may stipulate that sales of real property, made upon a decree rendered therein, shall be absolute, and without redemption; and, when such stipulations are the basis of the provisions of the decree, it cannot be doubted that it is in effect an adjudication, binding upon the parties, which will affect or dispose of titles of land
III. But it is insisted that the statute provides that the holder of a judgment lien may redeem from a sale on a senior judgment. That is true, if the right of redemption exists. It cannot exist, of course, if the purchaser has acquired a valid title free from lien and equities. In this case he had acquired such a title through the agreement of the parties in the action, the adjudication of the court upon that agreement resulting in a decree declaring that the sale of land shall be absolute, and without redemption, and the sale and deed pursuant to the decree. Surely the agreement of the parties, the decree, the sale and deed will not be disregarded in favor of one who had no lien or equity when defendants’ title ripened into perfection by the execution of the deed. In our opinion, these views irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the district court ought to have held that plaintiff, neither in law nor in equity, was entitled to redress, and on that ground should have, dismissed his petition. Reversed.