80 Iowa 378 | Iowa | 1890
— On the first day of January, 1876, Abram Delong was the owner of a quarter section of land in Sioux county. On that day he executed a mortgage on said land to A. B. Nash and S. W. Duncan. On the fifth day of January, 1877, the St. Paul Harvester Works obtained a judgment by confession against Delong in the circuit court of Sioux county. This judgment was assigned by the harvester works company to the plaintiff. On the tenth day of January, 1877, A. B. Nash, the owner of the mortgage above mentioned, commenced an action in the circuit court of Sioux county to foreclose the same ; and on the twenty-ninth
It will be observed, by an examination of the date of the above transactions that the judgment of the harvester works against Delong was rendered before the suit for foreclosure was commenced, and that, upon the face of the record, it was a lien on the land prior to the mortgage. The harvester works was not made a party to the foreclosure suit; and, so far as appears from the record, its assignee has the right to redeem. There is no dispute in regard to this proposition. But the defendant Dent claims that he purchased' the land from Delong before the judgment was rendered, and that, therefore, the judgment did not attach to the land as a lien. This is the only material question in dispute between the parties. It is stated by counsel for appellants as follows : “Was the land in controversy sold by Delong to Dent prior to January 5, 1877, or was it sold after that date?” The record evidence established the fact that the judgment was a lien on the land, and that it so continued to the commencement of the suit. The burden was, therefore, on the defendants to prove by competent evidence that a sale of the land was made by Delong .to Dent before the judgment was rendered. It was sought to establish this fact- by parol evidence. The district court failed to find the proof necessary to
