9 Watts 319 | Pa. | 1840
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Although we have, for a long series of years, had laws under which lands on which no person resided and no improvements were made, were sold for taxes, and many hundred sales have taken place, yet no instance occurs previous to 1815, in which the purchaser at a sale for taxes has succeeded in making out a good title in court, unless where the statute of limitations has come in aid of the treasurer or commissioner’s deed.
■ The courts having decided that, to vest a title in the purchaser of lands sold for taxes, an exact and literal compliance with every direction of the law or laws was necessary, and that, from the return of the election of the assessors, to the deed, every requisite of every act- must be shown by the original written paper in each case to have been in strict conformity with the law, it became necessary not only that a purchaser should be able, at the time of his purchase, to prove all that was required, but he must be able to prove every thing for twenty-one years after his taking possession. The several offices in which the documents were kept, were not, all of them, places of record. The original return of an eleetiou, or oath of an> officer, or newspapers containing the advertisement, though preserved for years, disappeared, or some one of them disappeared in a short time after the sale. The result was that few owners of unseated lands would pay taxes on them. And if a purchaser at a tax sale improved on the land, and by his labour made it valu
• The first cases which came before this court, after the passage of that law, were by the landholders against purchasers who had settled on the lands; and the questions decided were, how far the proof formerly required would be dispensed with. The first case is Stewart v Shoonefe.lt; it is there said the land must be unseated and a tax must be assessed. That case was tried before me, and taken to the supreme court and affirmed; but a matter admitted at the trial is not noticed, viz: that the line between the two townships had not been run until after the tract in question had been sold; and that the tract had always, been assessed as in Porter township, and that Stewart’s title to it was a deed on a sale for taxes in which it was assessed and sold as being in that township. The supreme court, knowing that the lines between townships in counties lately erected, and having large bodies of unseated lands, were seldom run or marked until the part became settled, chose to decide it on general grounds applicable to such cases.
In one of the next cases, Hubley v. Keyser, 2 Penn. Rep. 496, I delivered the opinion of the court, and, having the facts of that case in view, I used expressions whieh I would qualify. A person who became clerk of the commissioners, twelve years after the time when this land was taxed, produced a book containing a list of all the unseated lands in the county, and the amount of tax assessed on each, and stated that this was the only assessment in the office, and that no other had ever been there. On the other hand, a man of most respectable character swore he had been assessor in 1806', and had assessed the tract in question, and returned it in his list of
By the fifth section of the act of 1804, the title of the former owner is to be vested in the purchaser, though the land may not
The present case is distinguishable from any decided case in several respects. Two errors are assigned: First, that the land was struck off to Helfenstein and the deed made to Penrose. It is not, however, Helfenstein who objects to this—if he made the objection it would presents different case. The objection is from the owner of the warrant. By the act of assembly the purchaser after paying the taxes and costs is to give a bond for any overplus remaining of the sum bid after discharging the taxes and costs. This bond is by the treasurer to be filed in the office of the prothonotary of the county, and is a lien for the amount on the lands sold for five years. This seems to have been the security provided for the owner if any thing was coming tó him. To be sure there could recourse be had to the other property, or to the person of the obligor on this bond; this is an incident of every bond; but the legislature seem to have thought that making the bond a lien for its amount on the land sold was a sufficient security to the owner for any over-plus which might be due to him after paying the taxes and costs. In all public sales, whether by individuals or officers, it has been usual that a person bids for one who cannot attend the sale—or that the bidder transfers his bid to another who accepts and pays for the property; and, unless some thing more than this appears, we do not see that any third person can object to this.
The next objection is, that four tracts were advertised and sold together. The assessment was of four separate tracts—by adding the quantity in each together, they amount to 1030 acres—the warrant directs the treasurer to sell (among other things) 1030 acres,
The act of 1814 in its first section directs each deputy surveyor to make to the commissioners a return of all unseated lands, which returns shall include a list of the number of acres contained in each survey, and the names and surnames of the original warrantees. The commissioners are required to keep a book in which shall be entered the number of acres surveyed, the name of the original owners, &e. The second section, after directions as to advertising, &c., directs that a sale shall be made of the whole or any part of each tract, &c. The fee bill prescribes the fee for advertising each tract, for selling each tract. The act of 1806, directs the owners of unseated land, under the penalty of a four fold tax, to make a return to the commissioner's of each and every tract held by them, and the name of the person to whom the original title from the commonwealth passed. The act of 1815, directs the treasurer on the second Monday of June 1816, and every two years thereafter, to sell the tohole'or any part of each tract-, the fifth section provides that if any trad of unseated land shall not have bidden for it a sum equal to the taxes and costs, the commissioners may buy it for the county. The form of deed prescribed by this law begins: “Whereas a tract of land-, and I the said treasurer do grant, bargain and sell the said tract of land,” &c., &c. In short, the whole system of laws on this subject contemplates an assessment, advertisement and sale of each tract, and the practice has accorded therewith. It is not known that several tracts have been advertised as cne, sold as one, and conveyed as one, in any other county. In the case of Bedford County v. Riddle, before cited, the assessment, advertisement and sale were of each tract separately, and the only contest was that the purchaser of 105 tracts wished to comprise them all in one deed, which he offered to prepare—this the treasurer refused, and the supreme court approved of the conduct of the treasurer in this respect, though the sale was in another respect held invalid.
The bond for overplus is for the security of him whose land was sold, and this bond, in some instances, is for such amount that the owner chooses to take the money bid instead of redeeming the land; but how is this to be apportioned among the different owners of different tracts? but I do not choose to put it on the inconve-nience or hardship which might occur. There is no authority in any act of assembly to assess, advertise or sell in one lot more than one tract or parcel of land; and there is no reason that I can conceive why the authority or power of the county officers should in this respect be extended beyond the provisions of the laws, even if we had power to extend it.
The act of 1815, was intended to remove all the difficulties known to stand in the way of those who purchased lands sold for taxes, and this court has given, on several occasions, a construction calculated to carry into effect the legislative intent. It can hardly be supposed, however, that there was any intention to sanction new modes of proceeding never alluded to or thought of; it went on the ground that after two years from the sale every previous step should be presumed to have been legal—but if it appears clearly that the sale was without authority, as where seated lands are sold, or beyond all authority, and in violation of every legislative provision as in this case, the act of 1815 does not apply to these cases.
• The gentlemen whose names occur iu this sale repel all idea of intentional wrong, but we cannot help seeing that if this is supported, it may, arid in some cases must, eventuate in the grossest fraud, and pervert a series of laws intended to operate fairly on all parties, into the means of gross fraud and injustice, and make ■them produce effects the very reverse of those intended by the law makers.
Judgment reversed.