2 N.W.2d 427 | Minn. | 1942
Defendant Annie L. Paxton was the owner of the property involved in this suit subject to a mortgage to plaintiff for $2,500. On August 16, 1937, the mortgage being in default, plaintiff, the mortgagee, began foreclosure proceedings, and at the foreclosure sale bid in the premises for $3,529.49, the amount of the mortgage debt, costs, and expenses of sale. No redemption was made from the foreclosure sale. On December 15, 1937, Annie L. Paxton, for a valuable consideration, quitclaimed the premises to defendants Mabel E. Paxton, Alan E. Paxton, and Wayne K. Paxton. On December 21, 1937, the property having been bid in by the state at a sale pursuant to a real estate tax judgment entered March 24, 1932, in proceedings to enforce delinquent taxes for the year 1930, and the time for redemption therefrom having expired after due notice as provided by law, the premises were forfeited to the state. On February 14, 1938, the state deeded the property to Mabel E. Paxton, Alan E. Paxton, and Wayne K. Paxton for a consideration of $505.74. Later Wayne K. Paxton quitclaimed his interest in the premises to Mabel E. Paxton and Alan E. Paxton, *70 who have been in possession of the land since February 14, 1938, and have made valuable improvements thereon.
Plaintiff claims that she is the owner and entitled to possession of the land and asserts that the forfeiture to the state was due to the mortgagor's breach of covenant to pay taxes and that the title acquired from the state by the mortgagor's grantees was subject to her rights.
The right of defendants Alan E. Paxton and Mabel E. Paxton to acquire a tax title from the state, good as against plaintiff, must depend on the right of their grantor to do so, because the grantees stand "in no better position than the mortgagor himself." Washington L. T. Co. v. McKenzie,
Judgment affirmed.