Nelson v. Hughes

This quiet title suit involves a dispute between contract purchasers whose land sale contract was prior in time, but unrecorded, and a subsequent purchaser — a grantee under a deed — whose deed, though subsequent in time, was recorded. The disposition of the case turns on the allocation of the burden of proof to establish that the subsequent purchaser was or was not a bona fide purchaser for value without notice of the prior purchaser’s claim. The Court of Appeals imposed the burden of proof upon the subsequent purchaser and reversed the lower corut. We affirm the Court of Appeals.

THE FACTS

The…