136 Iowa 430 | Iowa | 1907
The plaintiff and 0. II. Crabtree were formerly husband and wife, but are now divorced. Since
As we have already noted, there is no evidence before us other than the deeds themselves to indicate what was or may have been the intention of the parties to this somewhat singular transaction. It is conceded in argument that the defendant O. H. Crabtree was formerly the owner and holder of the legal title to the property in suit, and, if the deceased, Rose M. Crabtree, ever obtained title, it must have been derived by her from him. Unless we are to abandon the position heretofore taken by this court with respect to the presumption attaching to the date of the acknowledgment of a deed, there is not the slightest evidence that such title was ever conveyed to Rose M. Crab-tree, prior to August 22, 1904. Nor is the transaction explainable on appellant’s theory, unless we are to suppose that by her deed to O. II. Crabtree the deceased did the vain and useless'thing of executing a formal conveyance to her father of property which he then owned, and in which she had no apparent interest, legal or equitable, and that he thereupon immediately and as a part of the same transaction conveyed the title back to her. It is much more natural to suppose that, for reasons not disclosed, C. H. Crabtree desired to place the apparent title of record in the daughter, and at the same time, by taking a reconveyance from her and withholding the same from record, avoid just such complication as has now arisen respecting the real ownership. In other words, a conveyance by the holder of the title to another person and a reconveyance hy the grantee to the grantor would be a logical or at least explainable sequence of events, while to assume that the deeds were made in the order contended for by the appellant would be neither.
The trial court seems to have acted upon this theory, and we are disposed to agree therewith. The burden was
For the reasons stated, the decree of the district court is affirmed.