51 Me. 599 | Me. | 1863
The opinion of the Court was drawn up by
This is a real action to recover possession of certain lots of land claimed to have been forfeited for the non-payment of taxes assessed in 1854.
The demandants, in order to prevail, must show a strict compliance with the law both in the assessment and subse
That portion of the section, thus quoted, refers to the sales of the collector under that chapter, and has no relation to the Act of 1811, under which the demandants claim title to the demanded premises by a forfeiture and not by a sale. The tenant, therefore, may require proof of the legality of the assessment, and of all legal proceedings in its enforcement. The demandants cannot invoke even the sixteenth section of the Act of 1811, which provides that — "in any trial at law or in equity, involving the validity of any sale of real estate for non-payment of taxes, it shall be sufficient for the party claiming under it to produce in evidence the collector’s deed, duly executed and recorded,” &c. In this case, no collector’s deed has or could be offered, so that the heretofore controverted point, as to the least quantum of evidence necessary to establish a tax title under recent legislation, does not arise. The defence may therefore be sustained on principles of law, as enunciated in Brown v. Veazie, 25 Maine, 359, and Alvord v. Collin, 20 Pick., 418.
The law requires that at the annual town meetings, held in the month of March or April, the qualified voters in each town shall choose by a major vote, among other town officers, three or more assessors who shall be duly qualified by taking the oath required by law. A neglect to take the oath has been held to be a non-acceptance of the office, and at a subsequent meeting the town may fill the vacancy.
It appears that at the annual meeting in 1851, the town chose John A. Dunning, Adams H. Merrill and John H. Clifford, selectmen and assessors. But it does not appear
There are other fatal defects in the proceedings which it becomes unnecessary further to notice.
Demandants nonsuit.