¶1The plaintiffs aver that from October 5, 1914, to December 1, 1915, the plaintiffs did farm work and labor for and at the request of the defendant, for which he promised to pay $544.67; and that he paid only $228.01; and the balance due is $316.66. In ■September, 1916, the plaintiff recovered a judgment, and the defendant .appeals.
¶2The answer is a counterclaim. It avers that on September 13, 1911, the plaintiff made to the defendant a promissory note to pay $325 on September 13, 1916, with interest, and that to secure the same they gave defendant a mortgage on a certain 80 acres of land in Adams ■county, subject to a prior mortgage for $150. That under the power in the mortgage the defendant declared the note to be due. The reply admits the making of the note and the mortgages, and that the prior mortgage was foreclosed by a sale of the premises. That defendant redeemed and obtained a sheriff’s deed to the land; that the total debt ■against the land did not exceed $600, and that it was worth $2,000.
¶3It also appears that on March 24, 1911, the plaintiffs made to P. D. Norton a mortgage on the same land to secure $22.50, which mortgage was foreclosed for the sum of $67.63 and the sheriff’s certificate assigned to the defendant, and under the assignment defendant obtained a sheriff’s deed to the land.
¶4On the value of the land the plaintiffs both testified that it was worth $20 an acre; and the defendant testified that he contracted to sell the land at $10 an acre.' The court found that the value of the land was from $800 to $1,000, and that the total mortgages against it did not *616exceed $650, and that by the merger of the title the mortgage for $325 was paid. The decision of the district court is manifestly fair and just, and it could not be otherwise. National Invest. Co. v. Nordin, 50 Minn. 336, 52 N. W. 899; McDonald v. Magirl, 97 Iowa, 677, 66 N. W. 904; Crowley v. Harader, 69 Iowa, 83, 28 N. W. 446; Moore v. Olive, 114 Iowa, 650, 87 N. W. 720.
¶5The judgment of the District Court is affirmed.
¶6(concurring specially). The evidence in this case seems to establish beyond question that the property acquired by the junior mortgagee in the foreclosure proceedings was worth considerably more than the amount standing against the land, including his mortgage. Under the circumstances disclosed by the record, it would be grossly inequitable to allow the junior mortgagee, who has acquired the property pledged for an amount only equivalent to the prior liens and foreclosure eosts, to hold the property thus obtained, and at the same time enforce the security. 2 Pom. Eq. Tur. 3d ed. § 794. When a redemptioner acquires property by sheriff’s deed, under the circumstances disclosed in this case, it is only equitable that his security should be discharged completely, if the value of the property warrants such finding, and pro iwnio if the surplus value over prior liens is insufficient.