87 Mo. 635 | Mo. | 1885
This is an action of ejectment, brought January 10, 1881, in the circuit court of Schuyler county for one hundred acres of land in said county. Plaintiff showed a regular chain of title. Defendant claims title under a tax deed of forfeited lands to W. C. McBee, for taxes for 1872, executed and recorded December 6, 1876, and pleads the special statute of limitations under section 221, page 1207, Wagner Statutes.
The undisputed facts, as shown by the record, are: The land in controversy was entered in 1847 and 1852 by. Robert and John Fugate, who fenced the eighty acre
It will be seen, therefore, from the foregoing state- ’ ment, that there are two questions submitted and calling' for our determination in this cáse : (1) Whether said tax deed is void upon its face, and (2) whether plaintiff ’s action is barred by limitation under section 221,-Wagner Statutes, page 1207. What we deem for the present purpose the material part of said deed is as. fol-, lows: “* * * And, whereas, on the twenty-eighth .day of November, A. D., 1874, said tracts of- land were-•sold by the collector of Schuyler county, Missouri, for, the taxes, interest and costs and. penalty, due thereon-for the year aforesaid and including also the taxes due for the years 1870, 1871 and 1873, to the state - of-Missouri and the county of Schuyler, the whole ■ amounting to $55.70, said salé being made according'
Said tax deed was for forfeited lands for the taxes of; 1870, 1871 and 1873, and was made or sought to be made under section 223, Wagner Statutes, page 1207," which provides : “If any person shall desire to- * * *' purchase any tract of of land * *' .*'• forfeited to the'; ■state, he shall apply to, the county clerk, who shall issue his order to the county collector, directing him to receive ■ from such person the amount due on said tract, * * *; particularly describing the property and setting forth the amount due, and upon presentation of said ■ order to the county collector, he shall receive said amount and • .give the person duplicate receipts therefor, setting forth: .a proper description of the property and the amount re- ■ .ceived ; one of which shall be countersigned by the-county clerk, and when so countersigned, shall be evi-" ■dence of the. * * * sale of the property therein described * * * but no such receipt shall be valid' until it- is countersigned by the county clerk. The other : receipt shall be filed by the county clerk. * * * ■ In ■ .cases of.sale the collector and- clerk shall make the re-.ceiptin the form of a certificate of purchase.” Section '217, Wagner Statutes, page 1205, prescribes the form of •' tax deeds therein contemplated and says the same “shall' .conform as near as possible” to the. form therein pre-: .scribed.
We may refer in this connection to what this court has heretofore said, that “ when the statute prescribes - the particular form to be observed in the execution of the; .deed,' that/form becomes substance and must be strictly' pursued.or the deed-will be void.” Williams v. McLanahan, 67 Mo. 499. The provisions of the statuteJ &rp.mandatory,, and while the. deed need not recite liter-
The statute further declares that the, receipt shall -
As to the point made by respondent’s counsel, that the judgment of the county court, being regular on its. f'ack imparts the. verity- that the judgment of the circuit court does and cannot be assailed collaterally, we deem it sufficient to say that the record does not show that any such judgment was offered in evidence. The defendant at the trial relied solely upon the tax deed. The decision of this court in Raley v. Guinn, 76 Mo. 263 is, therefore, inapplicable.
The second and remaining question arising upon’the record, viz.: Whether the plaintiff’s action is barred under section 221 and 222, Wagner’s Statutes, supra, where the defendant, as in this case, claims under a void tax deed, has, since the trial of this cause been before this court in the case of Mason et al. v. Crowder, and again upon a re-hearing of said case. Upon a review of the-, question and authorities this court, upon said re-hearing, in Mason et al. v. Crowder, 85 Mo. 523, held that-the special statute of limitations has no application ex-;cept where the tax deed is valid upon its face ; and that.-,
These views, therefore, dispose of the present- case^. and lead to a reversal of the judgment of the circuit-court and a remanding of the cause, which is ordered accordingly.