54 Neb. 733 | Neb. | 1898
P. L. Johnson brought this suit in the district court of Douglas county against J. B. Finley and others to foreclose a tax lien. He had a decree as prayed, and Finley and others have appealed.
1. The revenue law of the state provides that the county treasurer of each county shall, on the first Monday in November of each year, offer at public sale all lands on which the taxes levied for the previous year still remain unpaid (Compiled Statutes 1897, ch. 77, art. 1, sec. 109); that the treasurer shall keep a sale book showing the lands sold, to whom, and for what amounts, and, on or before the first Monday in December of each year, shall file in the office of the county clerk of his county a return of the sales made (section 112 of said chapter 77); and that after the public tax sale shall have closed, and after the treasurer has made his return thereon to the county clerk, as provided in said section 112, if any real estate remains unsold for want of bidders, the
The argument is that the provisions of the revenue law are mandatory, and that until the treasurer had made and filed with the county clerk the report of the public tax sale, he had no jurisdiction to sell real estate for taxes at a private sale; that such sale was consequently not voidable merely, but. absolutely void. It is true that the county treasurer had no authority to sell real estate at private tax sale until the real estate had been first offered at public tax sale and he had made and filed with the county clerk his report of such public tax sale; and a private tax sale made without the treasurer having first complied' with this requirement of the revenue law was an invalid sale, and the purchaser thereat, if he finally obtained a tax .deed based on the certificate of purchase, would not acquire a legal title to the real estate if the deed was in all other respects valid. But. notwithstanding the private tax sale was invalid be< the treasurer had not filed his report of the public tax sale, the effect of the private tax sale was to transfer to the purchaser thereat the lien which the public had against the real estate for the taxes for which it was sold. By such sale the purchaser became subrogated to the rights and liens of the public against the real estate for the delinquent taxes thereon. [Dillon v. Merriam, 22 Neb. 151; Adams v. Osgood, 42 Neb. 450.)
2. A second argument of appellants is that the taxes for which the real estate was sold at private tax sale,
3. A third argument is that the finding of the district court that the taxes for which the property was sold had been legally assessed and levied against the same is not sustained by sufficient evidence. We think it is.
4. Parts of the subsequent taxes paid by the purchaser at the private tax sale in 1893 were city of Omaha taxes' for the year 1892. Another argument is that the finding of the district court that these city taxes of 1892 were legally assessed or levied against the property, and therefore a lien upon it, is unsupported by sufficient evidence. The appellee, to prove the legal levy and assessment of the 1892 city taxes, introduced in evidence an ordinance of the city of Omaha passed and approved February 9, 1892, and signed by the mayor February 10, 1892. This ordinance was entitled “An ordinance making the annual levy of taxes for the city of Omaha for the year 1892.” The argument is that this ordinance did not prove anything, because it was not shown when or that the ordinance ever went into effect. The contention is that the ordinance, before it could take effect, must have been published in the official newspaper of the city of Omaha. Section 133, chapter 12a, Compiled Statutes 1895, the statute then in force governing the city of Omaha, is relied upon to sustain this contention. The section jmovides: “The council, at the commencement of each year, or as soon thereafter as may be, shall
Affirmed.