145 Iowa 696 | Iowa | 1910
In tbe year 1900 George Godfrey, being then tbe bolder of tbe legal title to a certain lot in tbe city of Ottumwa, executed a mortgage tbereon to plaintiff to secure tbe payment of a promissory note for $1,000 due two years after date. Tbe mortgage contained a clause authorizing tbe mortgagee to pay any taxes wbicb might become delinquent on said property, and that tbe mortgage
The trial court found for defendant and plaintiff appeals.
The record discloses no valid reason for questioning the effectiveness of the tax deed. So far as appears, the tax was regularly levied, the sale was properly conducted,
Haw, the tax purchaser, is not shown to have had any interest in or relation to the property which made the sale either void or voidable. When Lewis Godfrey purchased the certificate from Haw he had no interest in or relation to the property which made it his duty to pay the taxes, and none which calls for an application "of the rule by which a purchase of lands for taxes is sometimes held to operate as a redemption from the sale. True, he was the son of the mortgagor and later, after the title had passed to him by tax deed, he became his father’s sole heir. But he did not obtain the title to this property from or through his father, but from an independent source, and there rests upon him no obligation, legal or equitable, to yield his rights therein for the benefit of the mortgagee. Busch v. Hall, 119 Iowa, 288. Whether any moral obligation rests upon him in favor of the plaintiff is not a proper subject for our consideration. If there was anything in the record which tended directly, or by fair implication, to show that the son took the tax title for or in the interest of his father, a different result could well be reached, but, aside from the mere fact of family relationship, there is nothing of ■the kind. Upon this fact alone no presumption of fraud or collusion is justified. Indeed, the plaintiff does not charge fraud or collusion, but bases his right to a foreclosure against the property on the simple fact that the defendant is the son of the mortgagor, and upon the death of the latter became his heir. As we have already suggested, the title of the mortgagor having been extinguished before his death, the fact that defendant is his only heir is not a material consideration.
The decree of the district court is right, and it is affirmed.