Lincoln Park Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. DRG, Inc.

Plaintiff Lincoln Park Federal Savings & Loan Association sought to foreclose its unrecorded 1970 mortgage of certain residential property which defendant DRG, Inc., had taken in fee simple by a recorded tax deed in 1975 and sold to defendants Jerry and Kathleen Wilson in 1983. The trial court denied foreclosure after finding that plaintiff’s mortgage had been equitably converted and that the Wilsons’ interest was superior to that of plaintiff. Plaintiff appeals.

Albert and Vesser Lawrence owned a single-family home in Chicago, and on March 18, 1970, they procured a first mortgage from…