35 Fla. 391 | Fla. | 1895
The appellant, Willie H. Levy, filed his bill in equity an the Circuit Court of Alachua county on the 25th day of July, A. D. 1887, against the appellees, alleging therein that George W. Ladd was a resident of the State of Maine. That on the 5th day of May, 1884, divers fractional subdivisions of sections 11, 12, 2 and 3, in township 7 South, of range 18 east, in Alachua county, Florida, were sold by the collector of revenue for Alachua county at public auction for the unpaid taxes thereon for the year A. D. 1883, regularly and lawfully assessed according to law, to the State of Florida, there being no bidders for the same at said sale. That at the time of the assessment and sale of -said lands for said taxes, the defendants Daniel S. Ladd and G. W. Ladd, brothers, residing in Franklin county, Florida, claimed the ownership in fee of said lands. That on the 15th day of April, 1886, he, the complainant, purchased from the State of Florida all the right, title and interest of the State in and to said lands, as will more fully appear by reference to the tax -deed of said State to your orator, which said tax deed was duly recorded at page 301 of tax-title book “B,” in the public records of Alachua county, Florida, on the 15th day of April, 1886, a certified copy of which said deed is attached to the bill as an exhibit thereto and as part thereof. That at all times since the said T5th day of April, 1886, he has been and is now in possession of said land. That in May, 1886, the defendant George W. Ladd, wrongfully and unlawfully caused a levy to be made upon said lands under and by virtue of an execution issued out of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Florida, upon a pretended final judgment of said court in
Attached to the bill is the tax deed to said lands issued by the clerk of the Circuit Court of Alachua county to the complainant, dated April 15th, 1886, that recites that the lands were sold by the collector to the State of Florida on May 5th, 1884, for the taxes assessed for the year 1883, and that the complainant had purchased the right, title and interest of the State by paying to the Comptroller the sum of thirty dollars.
The defendant, George W. Ladd filed an original and amended answer to the bill, in which he admits that he is a resident of the State of Maine. He admits the sale of the lands by the collector of revenue for the taxes assessed thereon for the year 1883, but denies that said taxes were lawful, or were lawfully assessed. He admits that the complainant did on the 15th day of' April, 1886, attempt to purchase the right, title and interest of the State in and to said lands acquired under said illegal sale of 1884, for taxes of 1883, and that the Comptroller attempted to make said transfer and that the certificate issued by the collector of revenue, (No. 83), to the Comptroller, was attempted to be transferred to Mm by the Comptroller, and that a deed was issued to the complainant by the clerk of the Circuit Court for Alachua county as alleged; but, the answer charges, the said transfer by the Comptroller was and is unauthorized and in violation of the statutes of Florida, and that the said deed predicated thereon is illegal and void. He denies that the complainant has-at all times since the 15th day of April, 1886, been in possession of said lands, but asserts, on the contrary, that he has never at any time been in the actual possession of said property or any part thereof. The-levy upon the lands under a judgment rendered, in the
Replication to the answer as amended was filed, and the cause was referred to a master to take testimony and report the same to the court. After the testimony was all taken and reported to the court a final hearing was had, at which the court rendered a final decree dismissing the complainant’s bill at his costs of the-suit, and from this decree the complainant appeals..
As proof of his title to the lands, the complainant introdxxced a certified copy of the tax deed made to him by the clerk. To sustain the allegation of his possession of the land, the complainant testified that he resided in Newnansville, in Alachua county, Floxida. That he purchased the land in April, 1886, and soon after the purchase and before the commencement of this suit, he appointed an agent to prevent any trespasses upon said land, and that this agent made negotiations for the cultivation of any or all of said land under his directions. That ever since the appointment «of said agent he had exercised exclusive control and dominion over said land, and that no one else had attempted to exercise control over the" same. That his -control and doxninion over said land was known by a .great many of the neighbors. That he did not know George W. Ladd, of Bangor, Maine. That said Ladd had never been in possession of said land, nor any part thereof, That the agent he appointed to look after the land was Mr. V. H. Ellis. That said land was six -or eight miles from where he lived. That he had fenced three or five acres of said land, which part thereof he ;so fenced he can not describe. That this fencing he had done in 1889, but that negotiations were on foot to have had it fenced in 1886, That he gave a party, through his agent Eliis, the pxivilege to cultivate said lands on condition that he put a fence around it; this party did not cultivate it, as he would not agree to the condition to fence it. None of it was cultivated in the years 1886, 1887, 1888 or 1889, but he gave the privilege to different parties through his agent to cultivate
V. EL Ellis for the complainant testified that he resided within a half mile of said lands, and had lived there for about thirteen years. No one lived on or was in possession of these lands for ten or twelve years prior to April 15th, 1886. Since the 15th day of April,. 1886, the complainant has claimed to exercise ownership over said land. He exercised his control and dominion over said land by employing- me as his agent-to get the land Improved. I have acted as his agent in that respect. I have attempted to negotiate with parties on behalf of complainant for the cultivation and improvement of said land, but have failed to get parties to enter upon said land or to cultivate it on account of the scarcity of timber and difficulty of fencing it. It is generally believed in the neighborhood to be Levy5 s land. The reason the people believed the land to belong to Levy is because of the dominion he exercises over it. As the agent of Mr. Levy I fenced about two acres of this land in the summer of 1889, and it is the only part of said land that has been fenced since-April 15th, 1886. On the 20th of July, 1887, none of said land was under fence. I do not know whether or not George W. Ladd has employed any agent since April 15th, 1886, for the settlement and improvement of said land. This property is what is known as a part of the Ladd plantation. J. S. Dupis, of near
On behalf of the defendants, J. S. Dupuis testified that he had lived for about ten years about a half mile from said lands, near one corner thereof. That he did not know Daniel Ladd in his life-time, but knew his sons through correspondence with them. That he represented the estate of Daniel Ladd, as agent, for these and other lands for five or six years previous to the sale thereof by the U. S. Marshal to George W. Ladd. That the estate of Ladd, through him as agent, exercised ownership and possession over said lands for five or six years prior to said sale. That no part of the said land was under cultivation during that time. No one was in actual possession of said land on July 23rd, 1887. There was no one in actual possession thereof during the years 1887 and 1888, but Levy claimed to have a tax deed. Up to the time of Levy’s tax title the land was regarded by the neighborhood as the property of the estate of Daniel Ladd, but since that time it has been regarded as being in controversy. Neither Daniel Ladd, whose estate I represented, nor .any of his heirs or descendants, have lived on said
The defendant filed in evidence a certified copy of the certificate of tax sale made by the collector of rev enue on May 5th, 1884, to the Comptroller, with’the endorsement thereon of an assignment and transfer thereof by the Comptroller to the complainant, dated March 31st,'1886, upon which the clerk of the Circuit Court issued the tax deed to complainant. The defendant also introduced in evidence the tax asssessment rolls of Alachua county for the year 1883, and filed-in evidence a certified extract therefrom relating to the lands in question, showing that they were assessed as follows:
*400 “Ladd, G. W. & Brother.
The defendant also filed in evidence a certified extract from the tax sale book of record, showing that the lands were advertised for sale and sold by the collector on May 5th, 1884, as follows:
Prom the view we take of the case it becomes unnecessary to recite any other parts of the evidence in the cause that consisted chiefly of oral examinations of witnesses upon points that do not affect the questions upon which the case must go off.
The settled rule repeatedly announced by this and other courts, that prevails universally in cases of this-character is, “he who comes into equity to get rid of a legal title, must show clearly the validity of his own title, and the invalidity of his opponent’s. Equity will not act in such cases in the event.of a doubtfuL
The complainant’s tax title is void, if upon no other ground, because of a decided and serious variance as disclosed by the record here upon appeal, between the description given to the lands on the tax assessment roll and that given to it in the collector’s advertisement of sale and in his certificate of tax sale, and in. the tax deed. The description in the assessment roll and that in the certificate and tax deed are not at all the same. Carncross vs. Lykes, 22 Fla. 587; Grissom vs. Furman, 22 Fla. 581. It is further void because the amount of taxes assessed upon each of the separate and several tracts of land are not set down in separate columns opposite each respective tract, but the total taxes assessed upon all the aggregated tracts alone is given, in the assessment roll and in the collectors advertisement of sale. Graham vs. Florida Land & Mortgage Co., supra.