66 Pa. 229 | Pa. | 1870
The opinion of the court was delivered, January 3d 1871, by
— This case has leading features which, being determined, will render it unnecessary to consider the assignments of error in detail. The first and most important fact which, to a great extent, rules the case is, that lot No. 4023 of 1026 acres is one tract of land, and belongs to a single ownership. It all lies in Polk township, except an insignificant parcel caused by a slight deviation from the northern boundary of the tract in running the line of Polk township, leaving 16 acres in a narrow triangle lying within the township of Heath. Until 1859 it had all been assessed and taxed in Polk township, and Hays, the plaintiff, had paid the taxes accordingly. In 1359 the assessment was returned originally as 1026 acres in Polk township; but by some action of the
This being the legal system for the correction of errors in the assessment, it is an important fact that in consequence of Hays’s residence in a remote part of the state, and his paying the taxes of 1859 by the hand of another no't familiar with his lands, he had no notice of the assessment in Heath township. Having always before paid his taxes for his lands as lying in Polk township, he had no reason to suppose that his land was taxed elsewhere. His payment to the treasurer of all the taxes assessed in Polk township unquestionably operated to discharge all the land lying in that township from sale. The payment was for the taxes of lot No. 4023 in Polk township and not merely for 726 acres of land. The assessment was made by the number of the lot and also in the name of the original warrantee ; indicating clearly the intent to assess the lot as a whole, and as a single ownership. As
But it is argued that the primá facie presumption is that the assessment of 300 acres in Heath township was made at the instance of Hays, and Clarke v. Dougan, 2 Jones 91, is referred to as authority for the position. But that was the case of a resident seated tract, where the heirs of Keely claimed by the Statute of Bimi.tations, and endeavored to extend a constructive possession to the lines of the warrant survey by an alleged payment of the taxes for twenty-one years. Keely, however, had suffered himself to be assessed sometimes for 50 acres, sometimes for 100 acres, sometimes for 200 acres, and sometimes for 300 acres, the-whole quantity in the survey. It was in reference to such a case C. J. (xibson said, it is the duty of the assessor to call on the owner for information in respect to the value and quantity of his property, and the presumption is he does it. But no such presumption can be made here. The tract was unseated, Hays, a non-resident living in Pittsburg, who had always paid his taxes in Polk township for his whole tract, No. 4023; the tract had been so originally returned in 1859, but the assessment had been altered without his knowledge- or consent, and he paid the taxes for 1859 by the hand of a stranger who had no special knowledge of his lands. In addition to all these circumstances, Mr. Hook, the treasurer, states that the 300 acres assessed 'in Heath township had not- been carried into his land-book when Darling paid the taxes for Hays, for the reason that he himself did not then know of that assessment. Under all these facts there is no room for a presumption of knowledge on part of Hays that his land had been divided in quantities by the assessors' or commissioners without even an ideal line of division, and 300 acres assumed to be in Heath township, when in fact only 16 acres were within Heath. Presumptions of law exist only when public policy or the ends of justice demand them. In fietione juris, semper ex-
The judgment is affirmed.