158 A. 636 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1931
Argued October 16, 1931.
We agree with the learned court below that these appeals are ruled in principle by the decision of the Supreme Court in Phila. v. Anderson,
In its opinion the Supreme Court distinguished the act of the receiver of taxes in such case from the negligence of the city surveyor in locating the lines of a lot, (Alcorn v. Phila.,
We think the reasoning of that opinion is just as applicable to a mortgagee of the real estate as to a purchaser; and that there is no difference in the effect *105 of the certificate, whether it is obtained by a conveyancer, acting for a purchaser or mortgagee, or by the owner, for the purpose of delivering it to a purchaser or mortgagee. It is given for the very purpose of being produced to a purchaser or mortgagee, for in the hands of the owner himself it is of no effect if the taxes are actually unpaid, for he knows, or is bound to know, whether his taxes are paid, and cannot be misled by the error of the receiver of taxes, whereas the purchaser or mortgagee, for whose use and benefit the certificate is obtained, has no knowledge on the subject, and if the certificate is false or misleading, having acted upon it in good faith, has a right to insist that the city is bound by it.
In the present case, the appellee held a mortgage against premises 314 Poplar Street, which required the mortgagor to produce tax receipts for the property to the mortgagee for inspection on or before November 1, of each year. In January 1929, the appellee called upon the mortgagor to produce the tax receipts for the years 1926 and 1927, threatening that if they were not immediately produced, foreclosure proceedings would be begun. Following this, the mortgagor, on March 7, 1929, procured from the receiver of taxes a tax search in the proper form certifying that no taxes for the years 1926 and 1927 appeared on the official register of unpaid taxes, which he gave the mortgagee. Relying upon this certificate the appellee forbore instituting foreclosure proceedings. In November 1930, following a default, the appellee issued execution on the bond accompanying the mortgage, with damages assessed at $1506.75. The sheriff sold the real estate to the appellee, the mortgage creditor, for $1100, and the receiver of taxes notified the sheriff to deduct from the fund the city and school taxes for the year 1926, amounting to $103.55. A rule was subsequently granted to show cause why the money held by the sheriff should *106 not be paid to the mortgage creditor, which, following answers by the city and school district, was made absolute by the court below.
The court, in its opinion, properly distinguished between the certificate of the receiver of taxes, as described in Anderson v. Phila., supra, and the certificate of search of the recorder of deeds. (Houseman v. Girard Mutual B. L. Assn.,
"The mere fact that the search here involved was bought by the defendant, and not by the plaintiff, does not affect the question before us. The search was bought by the defendant for the lawful purpose of exhibiting it to the plaintiff, who stood in such relation to the property that his interest might be affected by acting upon it. The plaintiff had a right to act upon it in good faith, and when later, at the sheriff's sale, he relied upon its information, he was, in our judgment, well within his rights in doing so. Those who have the right to act upon the information given by a search are not required to take out a second search every time they act. They may assume the search is correct, and act upon it, until they have knowledge to the contrary. Any other rule would defeat the obvious equities of the situation."
We think the forbearance of foreclosure by the appellee for nearly two years sufficiently established that he suffered detriment through the erroneous certificate. It was impossible to place him in the exact situation he was in when he received the certificate in March, *108 1929, or to give him in November, 1930, precisely the same results that would have followed foreclosure in March, 1929. The delay, occasioned by the error of the receiver of taxes, resulted in later defaults to the injury of the mortgagee.
As respects the appeal of the School District of Philadelphia, we think the provisions of the School Code (Act of May 18, 1911, P.L. 309, sections 523-531,) and particularly section 531, make the receiver of taxes the agent of the school district in the collection, registration and certification of unpaid school taxes, with the same effect as he acts for the City, in those respects, with relation to city taxes.
The assignments of error are overruled and the order in each appeal is affirmed at the costs of the appellant.