168 Mich. 427 | Mich. | 1912
It is conceded that plaintiff has the original or government title to the land if certain foreclosure proceedings, to be later referred to, were regular. The land was sold for the taxes levied thereon in the years 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, and was held as State tax lands. Defendant’s asserted title is based upon certain tax deeds given by the auditor general to one Wheeler and upon a warranty deed from Wheeler. The tax deeds are dated, respectively, October 2, 1902, and August 22, 1903. In December, 1902, the tax title holder attempted, but ineffectually, to give the statutory notice to the owner or owners of the land. With the plea of the general issue the defendant filed a claim for compensation for improvements made upon the land, describing them, and assert
It does not appear that an order confirming the report of sale was entered, or that the decree was enrolled, until 1910, when upon the petitions of the plaintiff, and upon ex parte hearings, an order was directed to be entered nunc pro tunc, enrolling the decree. An order nisi confirming the said report of sale was also entered. In entering the order nisi the names of the original solicitors for complainant were signed thereto; the firm having been long before dissolved.
It is said by defendant that the previous death of the complainant in the foreclosure suit, the lapse of time, and the death of one of the original solicitors, are facts which forbade the granting of the orders. We need not upon this point indulge in extended argument or review the numerous decisions to which we are referred. Conceding, for the purposes of argument, that confirmation of the sale was a necessary prerequisite to the vesting of the title in the purchaser at the sale, we perceive no reason for saying that the order nisi which was entered is not effectual. It was an order to which, originally, the complainant in foreclosure was entitled as of course. Mere lapse of time — no other reason being asserted — ought not to deprive the complainant, and those claiming under him, of a record fair upon its face.
And as to the order for enrolling the decree nunc pro tunc, the authority to grant it is undoubted. 1 Comp. Laws, § 557. See Newton v. Newton, 166 Mich. 421 (132 N. W. 91).
It must be borne in mind that defendant is not concerned in the matter beyond this: that in ejectment plaintiff must recover upon the strength of his own title — must show title. The defendant has, or has not, a good title and right to possession under tax' deeds which, if valid,
Meantime he has not even a colorable right of entry, and, if he enters and makes improvements, may not, upon being dispossessed, recover the value thereof under the provisions of 1 Comp. Laws, § 3927. Corrigan v. Hinkley, 125 Mich. 125 (83 N. W. 1020). See, also, Griffin v. Kennedy, 148 Mich. 583 (112 N. W. 756); White v. Dunsmore, 167 Mich. 542 (133 N. W. 523).
It is provided in 3 Comp. Laws, § 10995, that whenever, in an action of ejectment, the plaintiff shall recover, the defendant shall be allowed compensation for improvements on the premises, made by him or by the person under whom he claims, to the extent that such improvements shall increase the present value of the premises, when the defendant, or the person through whom he claims title, has been in actual, peaceable occupation of the premises recovered for six years before the action was begun, and, also, when the premises shall'have been so occupied for a less time than six years under a color of title and in good faith. Defendant’s grantor entered upon the land in May, 1903. He conveyed it to defendant in April, 1906. This
In ejectment proceedings, strict legal rights are involved. The legislature has defined the relative rights of owners of land and of those who purchase them as State tax lands in a law intended primarily to secure contributions by property owners to the public revenues. Courts must accept plain legislative definitions of rights and enforce the law as they find it. In respect to the point under discussion, the legislative purpose is not doubtful. The tax title holder is forbidden to make an entry upon the land described in his deed until he has given a certain notice and has thereafter waited a certain time. All persons dealing with him are bound to know this limitation of his rights. To hold that his grantee may enter without reference to the imposed condition is in effect to nullify the statute. To ground legal rights opposed to the terms of the statute upon ineffectual attempts to obey the statute is to introduce confusion and to make legal titles uncertain. We are of opinion that the defendant was unlawfully in possession of the land and had not a colorable right to possession. In so deciding we do not mean to determine whether the statute invoked (3 Comp. Laws, § 10995) has application in any case arising between an owner of the original, or government, title and a tax title
There is a further question, not raised or determined in the trial court, which is suggested by the facts, to which question we have called the attention of counsel, who have discussed it in briefs filed since the hearing. It involves the right of the plaintiff to recover the land in this proceeding; it appearing that the State has twice acquired title to the land in tax proceedings which are not assailed, and it not appearing that, before defendant’s grantor entered, the land was other than unoccupied and uncultivated. See White v. Dunsmore, supra.
It is said in behalf of plaintiff, and is true, that it does not appear whether plaintiff has paid to the register in chancery the amount necessary to secure a reconveyance of the land. But it cannot be said that the point is not raised by the record. It is assigned as error that the court decided that plaintiff was owner of the premises and entitled to the possession of them. The court did so decide. Upon the record presented we think the ruling of the trial court was erroneous, but for a reason not urged to the trial court. White v. Dunsmore, supra.
The judgment is in all respects reversed, and, as it cannot be said that upon the points decided either party has prevailed, neither will recover costs of this court.