97 Iowa 106 | Iowa | 1896
The plaintiff hank is located at Burlington, in this state; and the defendant and her husband, S. D. Coonrod, formerly resided in that vicinity. The husband was a customer of the bank, and became indebted to it. He had no property clear of incumbrances, and the bank took second mortgages on the land in controversy, and other lands in Audubon county. As to one or two tracts, the' security taken was not in the form of mortgages, but the taking up of contracts, made by S. D. Coonrod, for the purchase of land. These transactions commenced in the year 1876, and in the year 1879. Coonrod was indebted to the bank in the sum of nearly seven thousand dollars, and all of that sum was a lien upon the land, either by mortgages made directly to the plaintiff, or by the buying in of prior liens, for the purchase money of the land. The plaintiff commenced an action on one of its mortgages, and a decree of foreclosure was entered, August 81,1879. A special execution was issued, and the land was sold thereon, to the plaintiff, and in pursuance thereof, a sheriff’s deed was made to the plaintiff. This proceeding involved most of the land upon which the plaintiff had liens. One or two other foreclosures were had upon con-' tracts taken up by the plaintiff, but they need not be specially mentioned. Indeed, it is unnecessary to make any further statement of facts, than that S. D. Coonrod, in 1878, conveyed to his wife whatever interest he had in that part of the land now in controversy. The sole question to be determined is whether the deed, under the foreclosure above mentioned, should be held, under the evidence, to be an equitable mortgage. The defendant sets forth her claim, in her