State V. Versluis

The facts may be stated as follows: On January 31, 1919, John W. and Lucy Wedgworth borrowed $1,500 of certain of the permanent funds of the state created by section 28 of the Enabling Act and the Constitution of Arizona, and to secure said loan gave to the state the note and mortgage aforesaid. The loan was approved by the state treasurer, the secretary of state and the governor. Interest was paid on said note up to July 1, 1932, and $100 was paid on the principal. In the latter part of 1936, defendants learned from the state treasurer that the said note and mortgage was long since due and unpaid, and believing that the state had abandoned its interest in the mortgaged property, purchased from Lucy Wedgworth and the surviving children of herself and her deceased husband all their interest in said premises. Thereafter defendants went into possession of the land and improved the same by the expenditure of large sums of money thereon. In 1938 the county treasurer offered the land in question for sale for the delinquent taxes due thereon for the years 1933 to 1937, and defendants purchased it at such sale, the usual treasurer's certificate of purchase being issued to them. Thereafter this suit was brought.