130 Iowa 212 | Iowa | 1906
Both parties claim title to the lot in controversy under one Aristarchus Cone, who acquired title thereto in 1890 by conveyance from one Yorse, and who in May, 1900, conveyed the lot by quitclaim deed to his niece, Mrs. Miller, who in May, 1903, conveyed by warranty deed to the plaintiff company, subject to a contract of sale to Eva M. Colburn and William II. Patterson, executed in March preceding. The claim of defendants is that they purchased the lot from Vorse in 1889 for $2,000, and immediately took possession thereof, paying him about $400 in money and deeding to him in exchange another lot of small value, and as balance of purchase money agreed to pay about $1,600; and that in 1890, for the purpose of extinguishing this indebtedness to Yorse, they entered into an arrangement with 'Cone by which he paid the amount due to Yorse and took defendants’ note for $1,600 and gave to defendants a bond for a deed, by which he undertook in the penal sum of $1,600 to convey the lot to defendants on payment of said note; and that therefore, while Cone was the apparent holder of the legal title, the defendants had the equitable title, subject to the obligation to pay to Cone the amount of the note, for the security of which the legal title was vested in him; and that this bond for a deed was put on record in Tune, 1900, prior to the execution by Mrs. Miller of the contract to Eva M. Colburn and William II. Patterson,’ and prior, also, to her conveyance to plaintiff. Defendants further contend' that their equitable title has ripened into a legal title by the extinguishment of their indebtedness to Cone; and that they are therefore entitled to be vested with the full legal title, free from any further lien on account of the money advanced to them by him; and that plaintiff should perfect the legal title in defendants by a conveyance, and should account
The suggestions just made sufficiently dispose, also, of the claim of plaintiff that defendants have forfeited their rights in the property by laches. No one has been misled by the failure of the defendants to more promptly assert their rights; for, as already indicated, defendants’ bond for a deed, executed to them by Cone, was recorded in 1900, within two or three months after the quit claim to Mrs. Miller, and there is no evidence whatever that Mrs. Miller parted with any consideration or incurred any expense in reliance on the failure of defendants to assert their rights in the property. After the recording of the bond for a deed, all the world was charged with notice of their claims, and 'the mere delay for three years thereafter to institute legal proceedings to acquire the full legal title could not be charged to them as laches.
We reach the conclusion that the court committed no errors of law, and that defendants were entitled to the decree which was entered in their favor, and such decree is therefore affirmed.