Case ID: iowa_30/html/0297-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Day, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Campbell v. Tagge.
    Trust deed! judicial sale: notice: publication of. A publication of notice of a judicial sale in a given issue of a weekly newspaper operates as a consecutive daily publication of tbe notice from tliat time until the next issue, and so on after each -subsequent issue until tbe day of sale. It was accordingly held, wliere a deed of trust authorized a sale of the premises by the trustee, upon his advertising the same for twenty days in some newspaper published in the county, that a publication for the length of time required in a weekly newspaper, was a sufficient compliance with the terms of the deed, though a daily of the same paper was issued in which • no publication of the sale was made.
    
      Appeal from Scott District Court.
    
    Saturday, December 17.
    On the 8th day of May, 1857, A. Fink executed to Washington Campbell a mortgage on certain lands. This mortgage was filed: for record on the 11th day of May, 1857.
    On the same day in which the mortgage was executed, and after its execution, Fink made a deed of trust of the same property to J. W. Woodard, as trustee, to secure a note of $1,177. This deed of trust was filed for record on the 9th day of May, 1857. The deed of trust authorized the trustee, upon failure to pay at maturity, to advertise the property in some newspaper printed in Scott county, at least twenty days, and sell the same at public auction at the court-house door, in the city of Davenport. There was a sale under this deed of trust by the trustee, and appellee claims title through this sale, by regular chain of conveyances. On the 19th day of January, 1869, the plaintiff filed in the 'Scott district court his petition for a foreclosure of the mortgage. On the 16th day of March, 1869, the defendant filed his answer, setting up his title under the trust deed. On the trial it was proved that the notice of sale under the trust deed was published in the weekly Iowa State Democrat, a newspaper published in said county, on every Thursday, for four successive weeks, commencing on the 19th day of November, 1857, and the last publication being on the 10th day of December, 1857, and that the sale occurred on the 12th day of December. It was also proved that the Iowa State Democrat was published at that time as a daily newspaper, in the city of Davenport, and had been so published for more than ten years prior to November, 1857; and that there were three other daily newspapers published in the city of Davenport in November and December, 1857.
    It was further proved that the circulation of the daily Iowa State Democrat was, at the time of the sale, about five hundred copies. That its circulation was, among the farmers of Scott county, probably not more than a dozen copies; outside of Scott county, in the State at large, about fifty copies, and outside of the State not over a dozen copies. That the circulation of the weekly was, in the city, about twenty or thirty copies; outside of the city, in the county, about two hundred copies; outside of the county, in the State at large, from two hundred to two hundred and fifty ; and outside of the State from fifty to one hundred copies.
    The court decreed that the title to the real estate in question was in the defendant, Peter N. Tagge, free from plaintiff’s incumbrance, and that the plaintiff’s bill should be dismissed. Plaintiff' appeals.
    
      James T. Lame for the appellant.
    
      H. R & E. Glaussen for the appellee.
   Day, J.

The only question presented in this case is whether the notice of sale was sufficient. The trust deed requires the trustee to advertise the property in some newspaper printed in Scott county, at least twenty days. Notice was given by four insertions in a weekly paperj'tlie" first insertion being twenty-tliree, and the last two, days before the sale. Appellant claims that the notice should have been inserted in twenty issues of a daily paper. "We concede the law to be, as recognized in Sears v. Livermore, 17 Iowa, 300, that directions in powers of sale must be strictly, literally and precisely pursued. Have the directions in this case been so followed ? In the case of L^efler v. Armstrong, 4 Iowa, 4S2, the deed of trust required thirty days’ notice, by advertisement in some newspaper printed in Burlington. Notice was given by publication, in a weekly newspaper, in the issues of the 8th, 15th, 22d and 29th of April, and the 8th of May. The sale occurred on the 8th of May. The court held that publication in a given issue imparted notice upon the day of publication, and for every day intervening until the next issue; and that, as the publication was continued in successive issues, and thirty days intervened between the first publication and the day of sale, thirty days’ notice of the sale had been given. In that case no daily paper was published in Burlington at the time of the sale, and herein are the facts of that case distinguished from this. It is not, however, believed that any importance is to be attached to that fact. "What constitutes notice for a given number of days is a substantive, independent fact. If an advertisement in a weekly newspaper imparts seven days’ notice when no daily paper is published in the county, does it do less when such daily is published ? If so, for what reason ? And if, in this case, the advertisement in one weekly issue imparted notice for seven days, then did the advertisement in four weekly issues impart notice for at least twenty days, and the direction in the power of sale has been “ strictly, literally and precisel/y pursued.”

The trust deed requires a publication for twenty days in some newspaper. If the grantor intended a publication in . a daily, he could have so specified in the deed. Failing to do so he leffc^the trustee the option 'to select either a daily- or a weekly papier. No complaint should be made if the power conferred in the deed of trust has been pursued. The decree is

Affirmed.

Cole, C. J., not concurring.