100 Ga. 547 | Ga. | 1897
Tbe tax-collector of Baker county issued an execution ■against lots of land 254 and 255 in tbe 8'tb district of said •county, for tbe amount of taxes assessed on said lots for tbe year 1892, as property unreturned for taxation, tbe owner •of -wbicb was unknown. Armed witb tbis execution as bis
1. Section 847 of the Political Code provides that, “If a person fails to make a retain, in whole or in part, or fails ■ to affix a value to his property, it 'is the duty of the receiver ■ to make the valuation and assess the taxation thereon, and in all other respects to make the return for the defaulting person from the best information he can obtain, and having •done so, he shall double the tax in the last column of 'the -digest against such defaulters, after 'having placed the proper market value or specific return in the proper column,” eta. ..Section 848 provides that, “If there is taxable property, real •or personal, in a county, that to the satisfaction of the re- ■ ceiver, when he comes to conclude his digest, is not returned by any person, and he does not know the owner or possessor, it is his duty to assess and double-tax it, describing it particularly; and the same power is conferred on the tax-collector .as to such property, when not assessed, or overlooked by the receiver.” Section 908 says: “When property is assessed for taxes which has not been returned by any one, as soon as ^assessed the tax-collector shall ait once issue execution against it for the amount due and costs, and the sheriff shall adver■tise it for sale in some public gazette ninety days before the .-day of sale, and if by said day the taxes are not paid, it shall he sold: provided, renting or hiring 'will mot bring the requisite amount. Whatever overplus there may be shall be paid over to the ordinary .as a .part of the educational ■fund, with a statement of the property and account of sales, .-subject to the claim of the true owner within four years.” It is evident from the first quoted section, that where realty is mot returned for taxation and the owner thereof is known to the tax-receiver, such officer must enter upon the digest a ■return of the property in the defaulter’s name, and, in such '..case, the execution for the taxes must he issued against him,
2. When, then, in contemplation of law, is the owner or possessor of property, which has not been returned for taxation, unknown to the tax officer; or when can it legally he said that such official does not know who is the owner or possessor of such property? Can the officer be legally held to have been ignorant in this respect, if if be conclusively shown 'that he could, with but slight effort, have obtained the requisite information? Does not the law which gives him tire authority to assess the property for taxation, if the-owner or possessor thereof he unknown to him, imply a duty upon his part to use reasonable diligence to' ascertain the owner o.r possessor, before he thus assesses the property?' We 'think so. As it is only the want of such information which confers upon the tax-receiver, or collector, the authority to assess the property as that of an unknown person; and to issue, or iu the case of the receiver, authorize the issuance of, an execution against the property itself instead of against the person liable for tax on it, it seems clear to»
3. In order to compel the contribution of the landowner to her support, the State, with strong hand, seizes his property, and, ¡brooking no legal interference with the speedy accomplishment of hex purpose, without the intervention of judge or jury, by a public sale of the land, she divests him of his title and confers it upon another. It is true that she mitigates the severity of her procedure by providing that the owner may redeem the property, within a given period, by repaying to the purchaser the amount of money which he has expended, together with a prescribed premium thereon. But the summary remedy to which she resorts when, in the exercise of her sovereign power, she thus seizes and sells a person’s land, is in derogation of the established principles of the common law, and is in great measure ex parte. Therefore, the statutes from which the ¡rower of her officer to seize and sell land can only be derived are to be strictly construed. Black, in his valuable work on Tax Titles, deduces, from the authorities on 'the subject, the following general rule: “In order that a sale of land for taxes should be valid and unimpeachable, and should pass a good title to the purchaser, it is necessary 'that all the preliminary requirements of the statutes, made conditions to the exercise of the power, and designating the various proceedings which are to culminate in the sale, should have been strictly com
4. This case, upon its admitted facts, is controlled by the-law as above laid down, and the losing parties have no just or legal cause for complaining of the verdict rendered.
Judgment affirmed.