79 So. 104 | Miss. | 1918
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellees, claiming to be tenants in coimnon of and owners of certain lands situated in Lincoln county, exhibited their bill of complaint against appellant as defendant in the court below, praying for the cancellation of a tax deed executed by the sheriff and tax collector to appellant April 1, 1912, in satisfaction of the unpaid taxes for the year 1911. The defendant answered the bill, and made his answer a cross-bill and prayed that his tax deed be confirmed as against the original complainants. The court decreed in favor of the complainants, and dismissed the cross-bill, and from his action in so doing appellant prosecutes this appeal. In decreeing for the complainants the chancellor directed that they should “pay the defendant the purchase
“The tax collector shall file all conveyances of land sold to individuals in the office of the clerk of the chancery court of the county, on or before the first Monday of May, there to remain for two years from the day of
“6974. On payment of the redemption money, the clerk shall indorse on the conveyance the word ‘cancelled,’ and sign his name thereto, with the date ■and amount paid, and shall also enter on the conveyance a statement of each item of charge, making up the aggregate amount paid; and he shall also note each redemption on his register, -with the date and amount paid. The clerk shall pay over the amount received by him to those entitled to receive it, and for a failure shall be liable on his official bond. All of such conveyances not canceled as above provided, shall be delivered to the persons entitled to them after two years from the date of the sale of the land conveyed.”
It is contended that these statutes make it the duty of the chancery clerk to specify each item of charge necessary to redeem from any particular tax sale, and that the canceled tax deed, specifying on the back thereof these separate items of charge, constitutes a receipt in favor of the complainants for the taxes for the year 1911; that it is the duty of the chancery clerk to
“It was not the custom in redeeming a piece of land. . If you would come in to redeem a piece of land now, I would not collect the taxes for this year. I would only collect the taxes that had already •been paid. ... If the party who bought the land had paid the taxes I would collect it. But if the owner of the property had come in and paid in the meantime I would not collect it.”
If affirmatively appears that the state and county taxes for the year 1911 were not in fact paid, and there is no question about the manner in which the tax collector proceeded, or of the time at which or the plane where he made sale of these lands in 1912. The sole question is whether he should have sold the lands at all in April, 1912. The lands were duly
“Land purchased by the state for taxes shall not again be sold for taxes until redeemed.”
But the sale of these lands to Conant in 1910 did not release the owners from the duty to pay the taxes for 1910 and 1911. They did not in fact pay the tax collector for either' of these years. It appears that Erwin paid the taxes for 1910, and that Wells, complainants’ agent, thereafter refunded this amount by
It is not necessary for us to decide that the chancery clerk might not require the owner of land to pay the taxes that have accrued since the sale and are still unpaid as a condition of redemption, although this is indeed very doubtful. This exact point is not now presented. Surely some one must go to the tax collector and pay or legally tender the amount of taxes. In many cases there is no redemption, and certainly the tax collector is not required and is nowhere authorized, to withhold delinquent lands from the annual tax sale or to postpone such a sale to ascertain whether the owner will redeem from a prior tax sale. As stated, lands sold for taxes to an individual remain for two-year period allowed for redemption subject to assessment and sale just as if they had not been previously sold, and the duty is upon the tax collector to see that the taxes are in fact paid annually. Any other plan would throw our fiscal affairs into confusion. The current expenses of the government must be met as nearly as possible by an annual income. It appears that the memorandum on the hack of the Conant canceled tax deed was not in fact signed by the chancery clerk, and proper investí
Reversed, and decree here for appellant.