14 S.D. 264 | S.D. | 1901
This is an action to quiet title to a portion of a quarter section of land in Dake county. Findings and judgment were for the plaintiff, and the defendants appeal. The plaintiff deraigns title through one Thomas H. VanDoren, who made a homestead entry upon the quarter section in 1876, and received a government patent therefor in 1893. The defendant claims title under a judgment in an action in which E. R. Miller was plaintiff and Thomas H. and Isaac N. VanDoren were defendants, docketed in Dake county in August, 1887, and the deed issued thereon in March, 1898. In 1880 Thomas H. VanDoren conveyed his interest in said quarter section to his wife. In 1881 the wife died intestate, leaving her husband, Thomas H., and three minor children, who succeeded to her estate. VanDoren and the children resided upon the property until the fall of 1885, when they removed to another part of the county. In July, 1885, VanDoren became indebted to said Miller, which resulted in the sale and deed under which the defendants claim title. The court, having found the facts substantially as above stated, concluded, as matter of law, that the plaintiff is the owner in fee simple and entitled to the possession of the land described in the complaint, and that neither of said defendants has any right, title or interest in or to said land, or any part thereof.
It is contended on the part of the respondents, in support of the judgment of the court below, that, as the land was entered by Thomas H. VanDoren- as a homestead under the laws of the United States, it was exempt from liability for any debt contracted by him prior to the issuance of the patent in 1893, under the provisions of
It wil be noticed, by the terms of the act, that it is explicitly provided that no land acquired under the provisions of that act should in any event become liable for any debt contracted prior to the issuing of a patent therefor; and we must presume that congress used the term “patent” advisedly, and with the intention of barring any and all debts contracted by the homestead claimant prior to the issuance of the patent. In discussing this section of the statute, Judge Dillon uses the following language': “It is not difficult to discover the reason for this provision. A leading object of the enactment was to benefit the poor man who was unable to buy lands at government price and receive his title at once and without condition, and it undoubtedly occurred to congress that many persons who had been unfortunate and were insolvent, would avail themselves of the act; and conceiving that the creditor, in such cases, had no equity to subject to the payment of his debt lands which had been given to the debtor by the bounty of the government, and to protect the debtor, ánd encourage persons to settle upon the public domain under the act, the fourth sectionwas adopted.” Seymour v. Sanders, 3 Dill. 437 Fed. Cas. No. 12,690. Taking this view by Judge Dillon
It is contended on the part of the appellant that the decision in the Brandhoefer case was greatly modified, if not overruled, by the case of Duell v. Potter, 51 Neb. 241, 70 N. W. 932, but an examination of that case satisfies us that the former case was not overruled or modified. In that case the court held that, “although lands acquired as a government homestead are forever exempt from liability for the debts of the patentee created before the patent was issued, such lands, in the hands of a subsequent owner, are not exempt by the federal homestead law from the payment of the debts of the latter incurred prior to the issuance of the patent.” In the course of the opinion the court referred to the case of Brandhoefer v. Bain, supra, but indicated no intention of overruling or modifying the decision there made. It will be noticed in the Duell case that an attempt was made to apply the rule to a party who was not the original homesteader, and the court, we think very properly, held that it did not apply to one not the grantee in the original patent. In DeLany v. Knapp, 111 Cal. 165, 43 Pac. 598, the learned supreme court of California seems to have taken a somewhat different view of the section we have been considering. The question of fraud, however, entered largely into that case, and we think the decision was based mainly upon the fact that the conveyance was made for the purpose of defrauding creditors. But, if not so, the ruling of the Nebraska court is more satisfactory to us, and more fully meets our views.
Taking this view of the law, we do not deem it necessary to consider a number of questions discussed in the briefs of counsel. It is clear from the facts found in this case that the debt was contracted,