117 Iowa 65 | Iowa | 1902
Defendants attempt to sustain the judgment by offering the amended return to which we have referred. It will be noticed that this was made nearly 15 years after the time it is claimed the service was made, and that it absolutely contradicts the statements made in the first return. Plaintiff testified positively that no notice was ever served on him personally, and we are inclined to think that Cox’s written statement as to what he did at or near the time of the transaction is better evidence than his unaided recollection some 15 years after the event. We are constrained to hold that the justice of the peace had no jurisdiction of the case against plaintiff, and that his judgment was, and is void. We are the more ready to reach this conclusion because the evidence tends quite strongly to show that the note on which it is based was more than paid by the defendants before the execution sale.