16 La. App. 145 | La. Ct. App. | 1931
This is a suit to set aside and to annul a tax sale of an undivided one-half interest in the W% of SW^ of NE!/4 of Section 18, Township 21 North, Range 15 West, situated in Caddo parish, Louisiana. The South Sulphur Drilling and Operating Company was from July 14,
In the court below the case was tried and decided upon an agreed statement of facts. According to this stipulation the address of the South Sulphur Drilling & Operating Company was 409 Marine Bank Building, New Orleans, Louisiana, in care of E. P. Bray. It is admitted that the sheriff and ex officio tax collector of Caddo parish, Louisiana, within the time and in the manner provided by law, sent the usual notice to the tax debtor by registered mail to this address. It is further admitted that the said E. P. Brady, if present, would testify that this notice was not received by him and that so far as he knows it was not received by anyone connected in any way with the said South Sulphur Drilling & Operating Company. The judgment of the lower court was in favor of the defendants and therefore rejected the demands of thé plaintiff. From this judgment the plaintiff prosecuted this appeal.
It. is evident that the sole issue in the case is as to whether proper and legal notice of the tax sale was given by the sheriff and tax collector. It is admitted that a legal notice was properly sent by registered mail to the right address. The failure of E. P. Brady or of “anyone connected in any way with the said South Sulphur Drilling & Operating Company,” so far as ,he, the said E. P: Brady, knows, to réceive the said notice, after it was ¡properly issued and sent by registered mail to the correct address furnished by the tax debtor, cannot affect the validity of the tax sale. Hoyle v. Southern Athletic Club, 48 La. Ann. 879, 19 So. 937; Baum v. Smith, 127 La. 1089, 54 So. 399; Adsit v. Park, 144 La. 934, 81 So. 430; Avery v. Mayo, 161 La. 699, 109 So. 393.
Counsel for the plaintiff and appellant has cited us to the following cases in support of his contention that the tax sale attacked is null for want of notice: Recker et al. v. Dupuy et al., 161 La. 392, 108 So. 782; Kivlen v. Horvath, 163 La. 901, 113 So. 140; Ryals v. Todd, 165 La. 952, 116 So. 395; Mattern v. Parqutt, 10 La. App. 769, 123 So. 189. In the case of Recker et al. v. Dupuy et al., at the time that the usual notices of the approaching sale of property for delinquent taxes were sent out, the plaintiffs, Recker, et al., were the owners of the ¡property and were, therefore, under the law the real tax debt
Granting that Mr. E. P. Brady never received the registered notice and that, so far as he knows, no one with authority received it, the fact remains that it was properly sent to the correct address furnished by the tax - debtor and that the sheriff and ex officio tax collector complied fully with the letter of the law. If the notice had not been delivered to someone at that address it would have been returned to the sheriff and that fact would have been easily proved. We do not think that the tax sale should be set aside “simply because the tax debtor is able or willing to testify that as a matter of fact he never received the delinquent notice,” when it is admitted that the notice was properly sent to the correct address and when there is no evidence of its having been returned to the sheriff and ex officio tax collector.
For the reasons assigned the judgment appealed from is affirmed, the ¡plaintiff to pay the costs of both courts.