42 Minn. 155 | Minn. | 1889
Action to determine an adverse claim to real property, defendant appealing from a judgment. Plaintiff’s title depends wholly upon the regularity of one, at least, of divers tax proceedings and sales, the sufficiency of a certificate issued thereunder, the notice to redeem subsequently issued, and the validity of its service under the provisions of Gen. St. 1878, c. 11, § 121. In the court below, (so we judge from the note attached to the findings,) and on the argument here, the principal questions discussed relate to the regularity of the proceedings on which three of the certificates were based; but as to another — the sale made in 1883 — it was stipulated by the parties that all steps were regularly and properly taken up to and including the certificate of sale issued to O. P. Stearns, purchaser at the sale, and plaintiff’s remote grantor. As this concession leaves nothing for our determination as to the title (which it is claimed was obtained in this proceeding) but the validity of the redemption notice and the sufficiency of its service, and as plaintiff’s title is established if these be regular and effectual, we can discover no reason, as we regard the ease, for considering the proceedings in any of the sales prior to that of 1883.
Before the year 1880 the property in dispute was assessed to an unknown owner. That year, and subsequently, it was assessed in the name of W. Ilayman, although it is admitted that no person by that name ever owned it, and that no such or similar name ever appeared in the chain of title. From the stipulation it appears that the sheriff of the county was unable to find W. Ilayman, to whom the notice to redeem was directed, and in whose name the land was assessed, as before stated, and thereupon served the same upon one B. F. Smith, who, as the tenant of one Campbell, to whom Stearns had conveyed, was in actual occupancy and possession of the premises. On this matter of the regularity of service this case ’ is disposed of by Western Land Ass’n v. McComber, 41 Minn. 20, (42 N. W. Rep. 543,) and Wakefield v. Lay, 41 Minn. 344, (43 N. W. Rep. 71;) and the service was sufficient.
But appellant contends that the notice itself was defective, because the exact day upon which the period of redemption would expire
Judgment affirmed.