37 Iowa 563 | Iowa | 1873
The sufficiency and regularity of the plaintiff’s title is not questioned by the defendant, and, therefore, we deem it unnecessary to set out here and again the substance even of the acts of congress and of the State legislature^ whereby such title is derived. But the defendant claims that his tax title is paramount to the plaintiff’s title. Whether the defendant’s tax title is paramount to the plaintiff’s title depends primarily upon the correct solution of the question as to the liability of the land to taxation for the years 1862 and 1863, or, at least, for one of those years. For, if the land was not liable to taxation for either of those years, the purchaser could acquire no title by his deed. Rev. of 1860, §§ 784, 785 and 789.
The proofs show that the certificates of the governor of the completion of a sufficient number of miles of the road to entitle the plaintiff’s grantor to the land in controversy were not executed or delivered earlier than October 31, 1864. The defendant claims to have shown that in point of fact a sufficient number of miles of railroad, west from Cedar Rapids, was actually completed in time to entitle the plaintiff’s grantor to the land in controversy on or before January 1, 1863. It was held by this court in the case of The State ex rel. etc., v. Kirkwood, Governor, etc., 14 Iowa, 162, which
But, again, it is urged that the proof shows that the plaintiff’s grantor had completed a sufficient number of miles of its railroad to entitle it to the lands in controversy prior to January 1, 1863, and that, by reason of such then completed road,
Reversed.