75 Iowa 250 | Iowa | 1888
— Plaintiff claims to be the owner in fee-simple of the south half of the southeast quarter of section 6, township 94, range 35, in Clay county. This land was entered on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1857, by Jane Bruce. On the first day of December, 1859, a patent therefor was issued to her assignee, Edward A. Puller, but never recorded. On the twenty-third day of July, 1884, Ed. Puller and wife executed a deed to plaintiff for the consideration of twenty-five dollars, “ conveying their interest in and to ” the land in question. This was never recorded. The defendant Mary T. Turner claims to own the land by virtue of a treasurer’s deed, executed to her pursuant to a sale made on the fifth day of November, 1877, for the delinquent taxes of 1876. This deed was recorded on the seventh day of April, 1881. The defendant Thomas F. Turner is the husband of his co-defendant. He alleges that he purchased the land in 1866, in good faith, and has ever since paid all taxes thereon, believing that he was the owner ; that after his purchase he discovered a defect in his chain of title as recorded, and that to perfect his title of record, and cure defects therein, he permitted the land to go to tax sale, and bid it in, and afterwards paid all taxes thereon.