132 Ky. 95 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1909
Reversing-
Appellee was the owner or claimant by a title of record of some 90 grants, of 200 acres each, issued to De Groot, Meredith, T'hickston, and Carmichael in the year 1870.. The patents were taken out to cover solid bodies of land, and without reference to interference from older grants covering the samé boundary, and without attention to claimants in possession, who might or might not have been entitled to notice and to pre-empt a certain quantity allowed by statute to actual settlers. The title claimed by appellee and his vendors had not been listed for assessment for any of the five years prior to 1906.
A comprehensive revenue statute was enacted by the General Assembly of 1906, which became effective in June of 1906. By the third article of the act it was made the duty of “each and every owner or claimant of land to pay all the taxes which had been assessed, and which should have been assessed, against, him; and those under whom he claims as- the owner or claimant of said land as of the 15th day of September, 1901, the 15th day of September, 1902, the 15th day of September, 1903, the 1st day of September, 1904, and the 1st day of September, 1905.” It was further provided by that act (section 1, art. 3, c. 22, p. 115, Acts 1906): “If said owner or claimant, or those under whom he claims, has failed to list said land, or any part thereof for taxation, as of said dates, or any of them, it shall be his duty to have same assessed and listed for taxation, in the manner and within the time hereinafter provided, as of each of said dates for which the assessment has been omitted, and to pay. the
Appellee filed his petition in the Leslie county court on December 28, 1906, in which he stated he was the owner by equitable title of 90 patents or grants, of 200 acres of land each, granted by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the year 1870 to W. H. De Groot, H. B. Meredith, L. EL Thickston, and J. Carmichael, making a total of 18,000 acres to which appellee had a prima facie title. The only description of the several tracts covered by the 90 patents is as follows (giving here only a few as illustrating all the descriptions) ; “406 acres on the point on the west side of Main Cut-shin creek; 200 acres, on top of the point between Sang fork of the Laurel fork of Greasy and Outshin at Harlan county line; 200 acres at Rich Hollow, in head of Main Cutshin creek; 400 acres at fork of a small branch in head of Main Cutshin; 400 acres on
The county court acted upon a demurrer to the petition in February, 1907, holding the petition to be ¡insufficient. Thereupon appellee tendered an amended petition, in which he does describe each tract fully and sufficiently by metes and bounds, and location, and name of patentee, together with statement of the claimants’ derivation of title from the patentee. But
The validity of article 3 of the revenue act of 1906 was before this court in the case of Eastern Kentucky Coal Lands Corporation v. Commonwealth, 106 S. W. 260, 32 Ky. Law Rep. 129, 127 Ky. 667, and was there sustained. In that ease it was held that the act under consideration partook of revenue and police features; that a time was given by the act after it became effective, to-wit, until January 1, 1907, to comply with its requirements as to listing omitted property which had' been omitted for the five years named in the act; that the description of the petitioner’s lands must be such as to identify them with reasonable certainty;
The act provides that the county court shall act as an assessing tribunal. It is limited as to the time within which it could act. The appeal to the circuit court was to provide against error in the action of the county court. It was not intended, by providing for an appeal, to extend the time within which the recusant taxpayer could list his omitted property. That would be a premium upon further delay, a temptation to dally longer with an urgent duty, which practice had not only exhausted the patience of the Commonwealth, but had defeated it in the effort to collect many thousands of revenue from this class of ■property holders. .If the county court had acted erroneously in rejecting the petition or amended petition tendered to it, that error could' have been remedied on appeal to the circuit court. But when the county court ruled properly on the petition and its amendment, and the taxpayer failed to tender to that tribunal, within the time allowed by the act, a sufficient petition, the grace allowed by the statute was exhausted. It could not be revived and extended by
The judgment is reversed, and cause remanded, with directions to dismiss the petition. ,