71 Miss. 620 | Miss. | 1893
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant exhibited his bill in the chancery court of Franklin county, praying confirmation of his tax-title to the lands named therein. The lands were purchased in March, 1890, at tax-sale, and the collector’s deed to appellant describes them as the “west part section 7, township 7, range 2 — 300 acres.” The answer to the bill sets up two defenses, viz : (1) The insufficiency of the description of the land, and (2) the failure of the sheriff’ and tax-collector to offer the lands in 40-acre lots.
Neither the irregular eastern outline of the section nor the admitted fact 'that there had never been any subdivision by actual governmental survey into 40-acre lots in anywise affect the questions involved. If the description of the land found in the deed be applied to the section, there will be found to be no difficulty in identifying the thing conveyed. Without the slightest difficulty or uncertainty, the 300 acres in the west part of the section may be ascertained in the manner more than once pointed out in former decisions of this court. Tierney v. Brown, 65 Miss., 563, and other cases.
If Mr. Parmeter is the owner of, 75 acres in the north-west corner of the section, and Williams or Howland is the owner of 8 or 11.69 acres in the west half of the'section, and the taxes on their lands had been paid, or if any other person owned any part of the section covered by the 300 acres laid off in the west part of the section, no serious embarrassment could arise, for the tax-deed would cover the 300 acres in the west part, less the Parmeter tract and less other tracts in the same west part situated as these smaller parcels appear to be. The deed, in its description, is sufficient to convey the 300 acres assessed to unknown owners in the west part of the section, less the lands in the same area assessed to other persons. The first defense is therefore without merit.
Was the sale void because the lands were not offered in 40-acre lots? We have already said that it was immaterial whether the section had ever been subdivided into lots of 40-acres by governmental survey, by lines laid out on the ground. Given a survey by the government marked out on the ground, and evidenced by field-notes, a subdivision into quarter sec
It is clear that a perfect compliance with the law requiring offerings in 40-acre lots was feasible in the case at bar, for, in the absence - of any survey into eighths of sections, a sale in 40-acre lots would certainly have passed an undivided interest in the whole tract equal to the proportion which the number of acres sold bore to the whole tract.
Affirmed.