88 Wis. 324 | Wis. | 1894
The principal objections made to the respondent’s title are laches in taking and recording the tax
1. The tax deed is in the form prescribed by the statute (sec. 50, ch. 22, Laws of 1859; R. S. sec. 1178), and the objection that it shows on its face a sale of the thirty or more blocks included in it for a gross sum of $80 is not maintainable. The recital is that these several blocks (describing them, and set opposite each the amount) “ were, for the nonpayment of taxes, sold by the treasurer of said county, at public auction, at,” etc., “ on,” etc., “ to the said Douglas county, for the sum of $80 in the whole, which was the amount of taxes assessed and due and unpaid on said blocks,” etc.;. and is in strict conformity with the statutory form. The words i£in the whole” mean in this connection, not that the blocks were sold in gross, but that the amounts, as stated in the certificate, opposite each block, and for which they were sold, aggregated $80. It was not necessary to expressly recite that the blocks were sold separately, and, as it does not appear that they wore sold in gross, the deed is “ presumptive evidence of the regularity of all the proceedings, from the valuation of the land by the assessor up to and including the execution of the deed,” and hence was evidence that the several blocks were separately sold, as prescribed by law. Laws of 1859, ch. 22, sec. 25 (R. S. sec. 1176). The tax deed, when delivered, was perfect and passed or might pass the legal title. The section referred to provides that the deed “ may be recorded with like effect as other conveyances of land.”
2. The block in question was sold at the tax sale, September 13, 1859, to Douglas county, and the certificate of such sale was transferred to one Moore, January 19, 1870, and subsequently to Annette Relf, the respondent’s remote grantor, to whom the tax deed in question was issued January 3, 1876, and it was filed for record and recorded imperfectly, as it appears, January 7, 1876. The right to have a tax deed issued on the certificate was not barred by the six years statute of limitations (sec. 1, ch. 112, Laws of 1867, as amended and embodied in R. S. sec. 1182), for the reason that the county continued to own and hold the certificate until January 19, 1870; and the deed in question was issued and delivered within six years after the date of the assignment of the certificate to Moore. The acceptance by the county board, December 31, 1869, of Moore’s bid for the tax certificates owned by the county, did not amount to an assignment of them in prmenti, but amounted to an executory agreement to thereafter assign them. By the agreement, Moore was to pay the county twenty cents qn - the dollar on the face of the certificates, taxes, and redemption printing, and to deposit $200 with the clerk as a guaranty of good faith, and the certificates were to be examined and itemized by the clerk of the board,— that is to say, the amount to be paid for them'was tobe ascertained,' — -and the balance of the purchase price was to be paid, and the certificates thereafter assigned and delivered to Moore; and it appears that the transfer to him was not made until January 19, 1870. The tax deed in question was issued January 3, 1876, within six years after such assignment of the certificate; so that neither the limitation of six years
3. We do not think that the appellant’s contention that the right to a tax deed on the certificate in question had been lost by laches or abandonment is tenable. Without considering the question whether the common-law presumption of payment or redemption would not arise in such a case after the lapse of twenty years, or whether such presumption might not arise after long-continued adverse possession of the premises, we are clear that, independent of any such considerations, the evidence of abandonment or laches must be clear and decisive to have the effect contended for by appellant’s counsel. The certificate in question was a part of the property of Douglas county, and before eight years after its date had expired the statute (ch. 112, Laws of 1867) was enacted, inaugurating a new policy, by which limitations of six and fifteen years upon the issue of tax deeds on certificates of sale were prescribed. This act plainly contemplates that counties or municipal corporations might thereafter sell and assign any tax certificates they then owned, and that the right to have a tax deed issued on them should not be barred until six years after such assignment. It is conceded that the owner of the patent title has never redeemed, or offered to redeem, the premises, and he cannot point to any limitation that has extinguished his duty or liability to redeem or lose his land. There is no ground, we think, to impute laches or abandonment on the part of the county, such as
4. Although the register of deeds did not properly record the tax deed of January 7, 18Y6, his duty to do so was of continuing obligation; and it is well settled that an omission to make proper entries in the general index at the time the deed is spread upon the record may be remedied after such recording by making the proper entries, and, when so made, the record will be good from that date, and it will not be necessary to again record the deed at length. Lombard v. Culbertson, 59 Wis. 442; Oconto Co. v. Jerrard, 46 Wis. 317. The insertion of the words “ See record ” in the index, under the column for description of the premises conveyed, was made by the register of deeds between 1882 and 1886; and the reference to the volume and page made the record complete and operative from the time of such insertion. St. Croix L. & L. Co. v. Ritchie, 73 Wis. 409; Hall v. Baker, 74 Wis. 118; Lander v. Bromley, 79 Wis. 372; S. & B. Ann. Stats, sec. 759a.
5. As the tax deed under which the respondent claims
By the Court.— The order of the circuit court is affirmed.