85 Pa. 37 | Pa. | 1877
delivered the opinion of the court, October 1st 1877.
In this case only one question may be considered, that is, whether there was sufficient evidence of a redemption of the land by the heirs of Philip Meyer, or by the Bank of the United States, from the tax .sale in 1816 to the commissioners of Northumberland county. That a presumption of a grant or an abandonment of title may arise from lapse of time and non-claim, when these point to the fact as a probable thing, is not disputable. The cases cited by the defendant in error prove this. Many precedents will be found collected and commented upon in Carter v. Tinicum Fishing Co., 27 P. F. Smith 315-16, and Brown v. Day, 28 Id. 139-40. •But time and non-claim, to become the foundation of such a presumption, must accord with the other facts in evidence, reasonably
To clear the case of a confusion of ideas between abandonment of title and redemption from sale, and from the effect of a payment of subsequent taxes, some things must be first noticed. And first it must be remembered that after the lapse of five years from the tax sale, the title of the county became absolute, and nothing but a redemption by the permission of the commissioners could adeem the title of the county; and it must be remembered that the tract remained in a wild and unseated state until the year 1871 or perhaps 1872. The legal or presumptive possession was, therefore, in the county in the meantime. It is next to be noticed that if a redemption existed, it is obvious it must have been made before, the year 1840, that is, in the interval between the years 1816 and 1840, when the commissioners of Northumberland redeemed the land from the sale in Columbia county made in 1838. After 1840 a permissive redemption only could be made, and it is not pretended there is any evidence to justify this presumption. The utmost effect of the subsequent facts would be to help to sustain a redemption prior to 1840.
The next fact to be remarked is that there is no record or documentary evidence of a redemption of right or by permission, while under the sixth section of the Act 13th March 1815, the evidence ought to appear both in the treasurer’s and the commissioner’s office. The letters Pd. B. opposite to the entry of the county tax of fifty-two cents in the year 1805 clearly is no evidence of redemption. And first the entry is confined to the county tax of that year, and is not carried forward to the taxes following either by words or signs. Next the county tax, fifty-two cents, of 1805 was not included in the taxes set forth in the deed. Those make $4.19, just the sum of all the other taxes down to 1813, including the road tax of 1805. The road taxes in all were $1.88, from which, deducting the fifty-two cents, $1.38 are left, the precise sum mentioned in the deed; showing that the clerk or scrivener inadvertently deducted the fifty-two cents from the wrong sum. It is evident that these fifty-two cents were paid before sale, and were not included. This accords with another pertinent fact. The Bank of the United States held a mortgage from John Nicholson, the owner of the land, dated in March 1797, and paid the back taxes of nine years, viz., $5.33, which sum precedes the entry of fifty-two cents, and was marked in the same way, Pd. B., so that the entry Pd. B. opposite the fifty-two, in 1805, was without doubt paid by the bank, and probably at the same time, the
If then no redemption took place before 1840, nothing has occurred since, sufficient to prove abandonment of title by Northumberland county or the acquisition of a now title by the former owners. There was no actual possession of the land and nothing therefore upon which the Statute of Limitations could take effect. The title of the county then being absolute, there was nothing inchoate or imperfect, which might be suffered to lapse from laches or inattention. In the case of an absolute title and its constructive possession, as a legal incident of unseated land, the non-payment of taxes by the owner creates no abandonment or forfeiture of title. Nothing less than a sale of the land for the unpaid taxes will extinguish his title. Nor will payment of taxes by another give him title without a possession to give effect to the statute, or other facts to create an estoppel. Non-payment of taxes by the owner and payment of them by an intruder in possession, may be evidence of an admitted ouster to the extent of the boundaries of the tract and thus to extend the pedis possessio to the Avoodland; but payment of taxes alone will not confer title where none exists. These principles are fully sustained by numerous cases, a few of which are referred to : Naglee v. Albright, 4 Whart. 300; Sorber v. Willing, 10 Watts 141; Sailor v. Hertzogg, 10 Barr 316; Mayor of Philadelphia v. Riddle, 1 Casey 263; Kelsey v. Murray, 9 Watts 111. The facts of Kelsey v. Murray are not reported, but it is obvious from the opinion the land aaus in the possession of tenants, and therefore it is no exception to the rule.
Judgment reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.