42 Pa. Super. 638 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1910
Opinion by
Most of the material questions raised in this case are based upon the interpretation to be given to two several assessments of taxes for the same years on the same tract of seated land in the county of Lackawanna. They are as follows: “Owner unknown; Jesse Shove tract; surface only; 404 acres at $5.00 per acre, $2020.00. (Coal rights reserved to Northern Coal & Iron Co.) Total $2020.00.” “Northern Coal & Iron Co.; Jesse Shove tract; coal rights only; number of acres 404; valuation $10.00 per acre; total valuation $4040.00; surface not included, only coal reservation; no coal; total $4040.00”
The taxes were paid by the Northern Coal & Iron Co., the present plaintiff, under the last assessment. A sale was made under the first assessment by the treasurer to the commissioners of the county, through whom the present defendants claimed that the entire estate was vested in them, because there had been no actual severance of the coal from the surface; that the second assessment was void, being that of an incorporeal hereditament, and that the purchasers at the tax sale under the first assessment, took the land and all the rights which necessarily go therewith. There is no dispute, as we understand the position of the appellants, that the coal, if there be any in this tract of land, was not actually severed by the deed from the executors of Hollenback to whom the patent issued, under which, by sundry mesne conveyances, the plaintiff claims its title. In the first assessment, it is clearly apparent that the surface only was assessed, the reason for the limitation implied by the word “only” being supplied by “coal rights reserved to Northern Coal & Iron Co.” In the second assessment, however, the reference to the coal which is assessed is not merely coal rights only, the entire description being “surface not included, only coal reservation; no coal; total $4040.” Whatever was included in the second
The appellants attack the validity of the patent to Hollenback upon which the plaintiff claims, on the ground that they acquired the title of Jesse Shove and that they had, therefore, the right to attack the validity of the patent, as having a title through Shove prior to the issuing thereof. This we think is based upon a misconception of what they acquired by the treasurer’s sale, based upon the assessment of ’95. What they purchased or what they secured under that sale was the title of an unknown owner. The• description is: “Jesse.Shove tract,” but that was merely for the purpose of the identifica
If there had been but a single assessment simply describing the property “owner unknown; Jesse Shove tract,” and nothing more, the contention of the plaintiff that it acquired title to the minerals under the surface, by virtue of the tax sale, would have been entirely proper, supported by abundant authority, but the authorities relied upon by it to show this are also clear, as in Moreland v. Frick Coke Co., 170 Pa. 33, which holds that “When a severance takes place, and the holder of a stratum of coal or other mineral records his title, or enters into possession of his sub-surface estate, he is not affected by an adjudication of the title to, or possession of the surface. And so in Hutchinson v. Kline, 199 Pa. 564, upon which the appellants rely; “Where an owner of lands conveys the surface and reserves all minerals, it is his duty to notify the county commissioners of this fact and, if he fails to do so, and thereafter the lands are assessed as to the entire estate as unseated lands, and are sold as such at a tax sale, the owner of the
The assignments of error are somewhat numerous, but, as the appellants present their argument to us, this covers practically the questions involved, which they regard as worthy of discussion.
A careful consideration of the whole case convinces us that none of the assignments embrace substantial error, and they are, therefore, all overruled.
Judgment affirmed.