88 Mo. 131 | Mo. | 1885
Plaintiffs sued in ejectment to recover possession of the south half of the northeast and northwest quarters of the northeast quarter of section thirteen, township twenty-seven, range fifteen, in Macon county. It is conceded that, on the 1st day of August,. 1871, H. Gr. Otis was the owner of the land, and by deed of that date conveyed it to his co-plaintiff, Henry S. Terbell in trust for Mary A. Otis. The defendants claim, under a sale made by the sheriff of Macon county, on an execution issued upon a judgment of the circuit court, rendered in a cause in which the state to the use of the collector of . said county was plaintiff, and H. Gr. and Mary A. Otis and Henry S. Terbell, were defendants.
“ State ex rel. Gooding vs. “ H. G. Otis et al. Defendants.
“At this day comes the plaintiff, by attorney, and by leave of court files his amended petition, making Mary A. Otis and Henry S. Terbell parties defendant herein, and the said plaintiff, proving that the said Otis and Terbell are non-residents of the state of Missouri, it is ordered that publication be made notifying said defendants of the pendency of this action, the. object of which is to enforce the lien of plaintiff against certain real ■estate of defendants for delinquent taxes, and to notify them that unless they appear before this court at its next term, beginning on the third Monday in May, 1879, and ■on or before the 6th day thereof, plead to plaintiff’s petition, the matters as therein stated will be taken for confessed and judgment entered in accordance therewith ; and it is further ordered that a copy hereof be published in some newspaper according to law, and this Cause is continued.”
The notice was as follows :
“OKDEK OE PUBIiIGATIOW.
“In the circuit court in Macon county, Missouri, May term, 1879. The State of Missouri at the relation and to the use of Wm. H. Gooding, collector of the revenue, plaintiff, against Mary A. Otis and Henry S. Terbell, defendants.
“Witness my hand and the seal of the circuit court of Macon county, this 4th day of February, 1879.
[seal.] T. S. Smedley, Clerk.”
The order of publication, made by the court was not published, but one made by the clerk was substituted and published. The statute provides that: “Every order (of publication) against non-residents * * * shall
Other questions are presented by the record, but as our ruling on this point is decisive of the case, it is unnecessary to notice them. The court obtained no jurisdiction over the persons of Mary A. Otis and Terbell or Fabell, and as to them the judgment rendered is a nullity .and is reversed, and the cause remanded.