79 Iowa 69 | Iowa | 1890
The premises in controversy are the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 5, in township 97 north, of range 40 west, in O’Brien county. The stipulated facts show the plaintiff to have been the fee-title owner of the land, and that the title should be quieted in him, unless he has been divested of it by a tax-title deed to the grantors of the defendant. The record evidences two sales of the land for taxes, the first being December 22, 1867, for the taxes of 1858 and 1859; and the second on the fifth day of October, 1874, for the taxes of 1872 and 1873. By mesne conveyances the defendant is the owner of the title resulting from either sale; and, if either tax deed is valid, his title is good. With our view of the case, it is only necessary to consider the validity of the deed resulting from the sale of October 5, 1874.
In argument but a single objection is made to the validity of this deed; and that objection goes to the question of a proper notice under the provisions of section 894 of the Code, being that required for the expiration of the time for redemption. The section provides that before a tax deed shall issue the holder of the tax-sale certificate shall cause a notice to be served upon the person in whose name the land is taxed of the time when the right of redemption will expire. It has
Appellant bases his claim that the notice should have been served on Easton on the assumption that the land was taxed to him. In this, we think, he is mistaken as to the facts; and, for its determination, let us look to the record. The facts are all by stipulation, and the thirteenth is as follows: “ (13) That said real estate always had been wild and unoccupied prairie land, in the actual possession of no one, up to the time possession was so taken by said Anna Dakin; and that the same was assessed by the assessor to “unknown owners” for the years up to the time that defendant took actual possession thereof, and was not otherwise taxed except as herein stated.” The statement making the exception- referred to at the close of the stipulation is stipulation number 9, in the following words: “(9) That the tax lists for the years 1874, 1875 and 1876 were then in the hands of the treasurer, and showed, in the columns marked ‘ Names of owners,’ the name of James H. Easton marked therein opposite the tract of land in controversy; that the treasurer will testify that when he received the tax lists no name was written
Aeeirmed.