98 Minn. 227 | Minn. | 1906
Action to determine adverse claims to certain lots in the city of St. Paul. Judgment for the plaintiff, from which the defendant Urban Investment Company appealed. The question here to be decided is this: Do the facts found by the trial court sustain its conclusion of law.to the effect that the tax judgment and sale by virtue of which the-plaintiff claims title to the lots are valid, and hence he is the owner: thereof ?
The facts so found are to the effect following: On and prior ter November 1, 1886, Nellie M. Weide was the owner of the lots, and on November 13, 1893, she and her husband, Joseph M. Weide, duly ex
We have here a singular state of facts to deal with. The tax judgment of July 11, 1890, was duly entered according to the findings of the trial court — that is, it was a valid judgment — and it has never been set aside by the courts, except indirectly as to the parties to the action commenced by the mortgagor to quiet her title. Neither the defendant nor the mortgagee, through whom the defendant claims, was a party to the action, and the judgment therein affects in no manner the defendant’s rights, for a mortgagor cannot do anything to impair the mortgagee’s title after the mortgage is duly recorded. Hokanson v. Gunderson, 54 Minn. 499, 56 N. W. 172, 40 Am. St. 354. For the same reason the application of the administrator of the estate of the mortgagor to vacate the second tax judgment, dated December 4, 1894, cannot affect the rights of the defendant. The application itself was not, as suggested by the plaintiff, a proceeding in rem, but it was a voluntary proceeding by the representative of the mortgagor to vacate a supposed judgment in rem. We have, then, a valid judgment for a street assessment, dated July 11, 1890, and a second judgment, dated December 4, 1894, for the same assessment, with interest at the rate of twelve per cent, per annum, entered by the clerk of the court without any order of the court so to do, and a tax sale of the lots pursuant to the supposed second judgment, by virtue of which the plaintiff claims title to the lots. We are not at liberty to indulge in any presumptions as to the validity of the second judgment contrary to the facts found by the court; for, the appeal having been taken from the judgment, with no settled case or bill of exceptions annexed to the judgment roll, we must presume that the findings of fact are based upon sufficient competent evidence.
Reversed and judgment ordered for defendant Urban Investment ■Company.