181 Iowa 248 | Iowa | 1917
The defendant Senneff, for answer, set up the matters hereinafter referred to, which we shall state as briefly as may be. Prior to February 18, 1902, plaintiff became the owner of the land in question, through negotiations with John Standring, and paid $1,000 for the quarter section, and agreed with Standring that, when the same was sold, Standring should have one half the profits. On the date last mentioned, a forged deed, purporting to convey the land in question, was executed to Stand-ring and placed of record. On March 7, 1902, Standring conveyed to Huntley, through whom and intervening grantors and the decree of the court, defendant Senneff acquired title. Some time before March 19, 1903, Stand-ring reported to Haswell a sale of the land to one Howie, on the basis of $5,600, which report was not true. On the last-named date, Standring sent Haswell $500, as having been paid by Howie on the purchase. May 13, 1903, Standring sent Haswell $1,000 on the supposed deal, and on September 1, 1903, he sent another $1,000 to plaintiff in cash, and a mortgage for $3,100 covering the land in question, purporting to be signed by Howie, which
The Supreme Court modified the decree of the district court, and provided that, if defendants would pay plaintiff $3,100, with interest, the title should be quieted in the defendants. The theory of the opinion, as stated at page 300, was that both plaintiff and defendants were innocent of wrongdoing, but were both the victims of Standring’s wrong, and that, if a result could be reached which would give plaintiff all he wanted or expected from the land in question, and at the same time give defendants the advantage of the price fixed by the plaintiff himself, it would as nearly reach an equitable result as could be done. In other words, if plaintiff received all that he could possibly have received for his land, had a sale in fact been made to Howie, he would suffer no actual loss, and defendants might be saved something by reason of the advance in the value of
Following the decision of the Supreme Court, defendants in that action paid to the clerk, for plaintiff’s use, $3,885.85, this being $3,100 with interest; and deed was delivered to the heirs of Hill, he having died. Thereafter, upon proper proceedings, the district court, on February 29, 1912, entered a supplemental decree quieting title in defendant Senneff, to whom deeds from the Hills had been executed. As said, the ditch for which the award of damages was made was not actually dug until after title had been quieted in Senneff. In the instant case, the trial court determined that Senneff was entitled to the $600, and no appeal has been taken by the board of supervisors or drainage district, so that the finding of the district court is conclusive that Senneff is entitled to the money, unless plaintiff Haswell is entitled thereto.
Appellees’ claim is that, when the decree appealed from in the first case was reversed and a supplemental decree entered, the supplemental decree related back; in other
It is thought by appellant that the holding- of the Supreme Court in the former case is not favorable to Senneff’s rights to the $600' award. It is true that the question as to this $600 damages was not in issue in the former case, and in fact the district had not then been established. But the theory of the opinion was to make plaintiff Avhole, and Senneff acquired the rights of the defendants in that action after the reversal by the Supreme Court, and stands in their place.
Appellee contends that Haswell was not the OAvner of the land when he filed the claim for damages; that the decree of the trial court which established such ownership
We are of opinion that the judgment and decree of the trial court was right, and that it ought to be affirmed. It is — Affirmed.