62 A.2d 3 | Pa. | 1948
The County Commissioners of Indiana County, having bought a certain mining property at a treasurer's sale for nonpayment of taxes, are desirous of selling the same to a person who has made an advantageous offer to purchase it. An assignee of the previous owner, however, claims the right to redeem the property for the amount of the taxes, penalties, interest and costs due thereon, the total of which is a considerably less *246 amount than that offered by the prospective purchaser. The question now is whether this claimed right of redemption exists and whether the Commissioners, therefore, are bound to recognize it.
The property was owned by Westmoreland Mining Company, but no mining operations have been conducted thereon since 1927. In 1940 it was sold by the County Treasurer at a tax sale for the nonpayment of the 1937 taxes, and it was purchased by the County Commissioners. In 1947 one Hinks, after certain intermediate court proceedings at which competitive bids had been received, offered to buy the property from the Commissioners for $25,290.82. Meanwhile certain parties — James A. Meehan and Walter J. Lyda — had obtained from Westmoreland Mining Company a quitclaim deed whereupon they asserted a right to redeem the property upon the payment of $20,290.82, that sum representing the total amount of taxes, interest, penalties and costs then due thereon. On petition of the Commissioners the court granted a rule on them to show cause why their offer to redeem should not be refused and why the property should not be sold to Hinks. The court, after hearing, discharged the rule, refused to approve the sale to Hinks, and directed that Meehan and Lyda should be allowed to redeem. Hinks, who had intervened in the proceedings, appeals from the court's decree.
The problem involved centers around the effect on the Act of July 28, 1941, P. L. 535 — under which Meehan and Lyda claim — of the passage of the subsequent Act of May 24, 1945, P. L. 945. Hinks contends that this later statute repealed the Act of 1941 and that the period of redemption allowed to an owner of land sold for nonpayment of taxes had, in this case, expired long before 1947. An analysis of the legislation on the subject of redemption gives no support to this contention. Under the Acts of May 9, 1889, P. L. 141 and May 29, 1931, P. L. 280, the time allowed for redemption was fixed at two years after the sale for unpaid taxes. By the Act *247
of July 19, 1935, P. L. 1321, amending the Act of 1931, the time was extended to five years where the property was purchased by the County Commissioners, but by the Act of June 20, 1939, P. L. 498, which further amended the Act of 1931, this special provision was eliminated except as to landtheretofore purchased by the Commissioners, and the time for redemption was restored in all cases to the period of two years after the tax sale. Then came the Act, here in question, of July 28, 1941, P. L. 535. It did not change the general two year redemption period, but it provided that, if the property was purchased at the tax sale by any political subdivision, any person entitled to redeem the property should have the right to do so as long as the title thereto remained in such political subdivision, whether or not the [two year] period, during which the right of redemption existed, should have expired: seeBlythe Township School District v. Mary-D. Coal Mining Co.,Inc.,
The intervenor raises several other questions. He contends that Westmoreland Mining Company, by its failure to conduct mining operations on the property and to pay the taxes thereon over a long course of years, had abandoned its title. It has frequently been held *249
that abandonment of title is not to be presumed from a mere failure to possess the land or from neglect to pay the taxes thereon; inchoate rights may be abandoned but abandonment is not predicable of perfect titles: Mayor of Philadelphia v.Riddle,
Finally, it is urged by the intervenor that, under the Act of 1941, Meehan and Lyda should have entered into a written agreement with the County Commissioners to pay the taxes in five equal annual instalments, instead of making one lump sum payment of the entire amount due. When it is considered that the Act of 1941 was intended for the benefit of hard-pressed property owners who might otherwise lose their lands through inability to pay the taxes thereon it is impossible to believe that the legislature could have intended to deny to such owners the right to regain their lands by a single payment in full instead of by payments in instalments; presumably the advantage to the political subdivision of getting the entire amount at once would more than counterbalance the possibility of the redeeming owner subsequently failing to pay the taxes falling due during the five year period.
The order and decree of the court is affirmed; the costs, however, to be paid by the appellees.