35 Minn. 234 | Minn. | 1886
The plaintiff brings this action under the statute to determine adverse claims to lots 10 and 11, section 15, township 151, range 44, alleging that he is the owner, and that the same are vacant and unoccupied. The defendants deny plaintiff’s title* aud allege title in the defendants, Mary R. Bottineau, Eliza Buse, and Edward Grussendorf. For reply the plaintiff alleges the execution, January 6, 1876, by Mary Bottineau and her husband, prior to her conveyances to the other two defendants, to the iEtna Life Insur-
The sole question in this action is, did the plaintiff get title to the lots described in the complaint, through the mortgage and foreclosure proceedings set up in the reply? The statute (Gen. St. 1878, c. 81, §§ 11, 12,) requires that the certificate of sale (which must state, among other things, a description of the property sold, the price paid for each parcel, the name of the purchaser, and date of sale) shall be executed, proved, or acknowledged, and recorded as required by law for a conveyance of real estate, within 20 days after the sale, and enacts that, so proved, acknowledged, and recorded, it shall, upon the expiration of the time for redemption, operate as a conveyance to the purchaser or his assigns of all the right, title, and interest of the mortgagor in and to the premises named therein at the date of the
In this certificate there is no description of the lots described in the complaint. There are two lots described as lots 10 and 11, in section 22, township 151, range 44. We are asked to construe this to mean lots 10 and 11 in section 15, same township and range. It is not a case in which a court may reject a false element or item of description, if there will be enough left to sufficiently describe the premises; but we are asked to strike out one and insert another essential matter of description, — to substitute another in place of that used in the instrument. We know of no rule of construction under which that can be done. The general recital in the certificate that the sheriff sold all the property described in the mortgage cannot help so radical a defect. Judged, then, upon the certificate alone, the plaintiff did not get title to the lots.
It is claimed, however, in his behalf that the matter is res acljudi-caia by the judgment in the former action. In that action the matter involved was the right of these defendants to redeem from the mortgage. The judgment determined against that right; in other words, that it was barred by the foreclosure. The question of what particular person bought or acquired title to this or that particular parcel was not involved, and consequently not determined by the judgment. It does not suffice for plaintiff’s action that he shows defendants’ right of redemption to have been barred. He alleges title in himself, and cannot maintain this action without showing title in himself, which is not shown by that judgment, nor by the certificate.
Judgment reversed.