68 Wis. 202 | Wis. | 1887
It is urged that the description of the land in each certificate is so indefinite and uncertain as to be fatally defective. This is virtually conceded to be true, unless the description is aided by the “ Act to regulate the description of real estate for the purposes of assessment and taxation in the city of Oconto.” Oh. 105, Laws of 1881. By that act all the real estate in the city subject to taxation was required to be correctly and fully described, in numerical order, in a book to be kept for that purpose in the office of the register of deeds, to be known and designated as the “ Assessor’s Book of the City of Oconto ” (sec. 1); and to “ be a part of the public records of Oconto county and city, of the same legal force with other public records of real estate, to effect the purposes of this act ” (sec. 2). The city council was required by the act to cause_such book to be written up annually by adding thereto or changing all descriptions of lots or parcels of real estate which should, by subdivision or otherwise, become liable • to taxation subsequently to the times, respectively, when such book should be last so written up. Sec. 3. Each and every parcel of real estate in the city liable to taxation, and which had been conveyed by metes and bounds prior to the time when such book should be so written up, was thereby required to be described therein, as nearly as might be, in the words of the deed by which it had been conveyed of record; and any lot which had not been so conveyed by deed when such book should be so written up, or which was not then numbered upon a recorded plat, was thereby required to be described in such book by a correct and pertinent description, to be obtained if necessary by the employment of a competent surveyor; and no description was to be deemed insufficient by reason of the use of abbreviations or figures or signs commonly used in describing land. Sec. 4. Each and every lot and parcel of land described in such book, as provided in section 4 of the act, was also required to be known and designated
In discussing the question of an alleged indefinite and uncertain description of land in a tax deed, it was said in Meade v. Gilfoyle, 64 Wis. 18, that “ the ambiguity in the description here consists in reference to records, documents, and descriptions outside the deeds, and which were necessarily to be regarded as a part of the description. This was
.Here neither of the certificates contain any complete description of any land, nor is there any reference in either of them to ch. 105, Laws of 1881, or any assessor’s book or map made in pursuance thereof, or any other record, document, plat, map, or description whatever. The contention of the learned counsel for the plaintiff is to the effect that, as the assessor’s book is required by the act to have a complete description of each and every parcel or lot of land (sec. 4), and that each and every lot or parcel of land so described should “also be known and designated in said book by numbers ” (sec. 5), as indicated, and then that “ any description by number” as aforesaid should “be sufficient”
It was not held in Delorme v. Ferk, 24 Wis. 201, nor Meade v. Gilfoyle, supra, that a statute might supply an entire want of description; but merely that any description in a tax deed which indicated the land intended with ordinary and reasonable certainty, and which would be sufficient between grantor and grantee in an ordinary conveyance, would be sufficient. This is on the theory that the law will not declare a description void for uncertainty when the light which contemporaneous facts and circumstances furnish renders it definite and certain. Docter v. Hellberg, 65 Wis. 421. “ It is undoubtedly essential to the validity of a grant,” said Mabshall, O. J., “that there should be a thing granted, which must be so described as to be capable of being distinguished from other things of the same kind. But it is not necessary that the grant itself should contain such a description as, without the aid of extrinsic testimony, to ascertain precisely what is conveyed. Almost all grants of land call for natural objects, which must be proved bj^ testimony consistent with the grant, but not found in it.” Blake v. Doherty, 5 Wheat. 362.
Undoubtedly a tax deed or a tax certificate must be construed with reference to existing statutes. In other words, statutes may be enacted for the purpose of aiding descriptions in tax proceedings. But it does not necessarily follow that such statutes may entirely dispense with all description, or subject the same to an annual change by a city council or its selected agencies, in conformity with a fictitious standard or model devised to satisfy the convenience or caprice of some official or agent. The contention is, in
But all the land in the city may not be owned by residents of the city. Presumably it is not. A nonresident of any city or the state may own land in a dozen cities and other parts of the state. If Oconto can have an independent, fictitious designation, then each of the other cities may devise an entirely different fictitious standard, thus making the confusion of such land-owner worse confounded. Of course, the purpose of taxation is revenue. This should be secured, however, without subjecting the owners of property to unnecessary burdens. Before the title to land should be divested by tax proceedings, the owner should have a full and fair opportunity for hearing, payment, and redemption. In such proceedings, the land should be described with sufficient particularity to afford the owners and others interested the means of identification without misleading them. Cooley on Taxation, 404 et seq. One of the objects of tax proceedings, and especially notices, posters, advertisements, etc., is to give owners and all others interested an opportunity of being heard and due notice that the title is to be ultimately divested unless the tax is paid or the land redeemed. Hence it has often been held that such tax proceedings, taken together, are in effect “ due process
The view we have taken of the case renders it unnecessary to determine whether ch. 105, Laws bf 1881, is in contravention of the amendment to art. IY of the constitution of the state, which, among other things, provides:
“ Sec. 31. The legislature is prohibited from enacting any special or private laws ... (6) for assessment or collection of taxes, or for extending the time for the collection thereof; (7) for granting corporate powers or privileges, except to cities. . . .
“ Sec. 32. The legislature shall provide general laws for the transaction of any business that may .be prohibited by section thirty-one of this article, and all such laws shall be uniform in their operation throughout the state.”
The gravity of such a question suggests the propriety of reserving its determination until imperative duty requires.
By the Court.— The order of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings according to law.