126 Iowa 190 | Iowa | 1904
Prior to the acquisition by plaintiff of the claim against defendant J. R. Rice, on which judgment in her favor was subsequently rendered, the defendants J. R. and J. L. Rice, husband and wife, owned and occupied as a homestead the premises in controversy, consisting of about three acres of land within the limits of the city of Council Bluffs, which was used for gardening and fruit growing. In 1893 the land was mortgaged to J. P. Hess, and in 1899, in pursuance of foreclosure proceedings, it was sold to Susan Hess in satisfaction of the mortgage. Through various assignments the certificate became the property of one Baily, with whom in 1901 J. R. Rice entered into a contract by which Baily agreed to convey the premises to Rice by warranty deed upon the payment of $1,250.10, with interest, as evidenced by several notes, and on the following day a sheriff’s deed was executed to Baily, the holder of the certificate. Subsequently the land was sold to the railroad company, and, as already stated, a portion of the proceeds, sufficient to satisfy plaintiff’s judgment, if found to be a lien on the homestead, is in the hands of the railroad company for satisfaction of plaintiff’s judgment, if the lien thereof as against the land is established. J. R. and J. L. Rice continued in possession of the premises as a homestead down to the time of the sale to the railroad company.
If the conveyance to Baily through the sheriff’s deed was in effect a mortgage of the property by Eice to Baily, then Eice never lost the equitable title to the property, and continued to hold it as his homestead, not by reason of any new title acquired from Baily under the contract to convey, but in continuation of his previous homestead right. Therefore the plaintiff’s claim did not antedate the acquisition of the homestead by the Bices, and plaintiff’s judgment cannot be enforced against such homestead, nor the proceeds thereof in the hands of the railroad company. A homestead right may exist as to property held by an equitable title as effectually as though it were held by legal title. Hewitt v. Rankin, 41 Iowa, 35.
The case of Wertz v. Merritt, 74 Iowa, 683, is relied on for appellant in support of the claim that when Eice’s title
2. Homesteads: extentextent of ’ It is contended that the Rices were entitled to hold only one-half acre exempt from execution, and that as the proceeds of sale of the entire tract would be amply sufficient to satisfy plaintiff’s claim after the value of the homestead, if limited to one-half acre, were deducted, the exemption is fully satisfied, and plaintiff’s claim may be enforced; but the statutory provision as to the extent of the homestead; which is now in force (Code, section 2978, as amended by Act Twenty-eighth General Assembly, page 89, chapter 119), and that which was in force when plaintiff’s claim accrued‘(Code 1873, section 1996), alike limit the homestead to one-half acre only when within a city or town plat; and it appears that, while the three-acre tract in which the homestead was claimed was
The judgment is affirmed.