104 Ind. 75 | Ind. | 1885
On the 29th day of December, 1883, appellee filed an amended complaint against appellant Amanda J. Scott, and her husband, to enforce a lien for taxes upon her land, which he had bought at a tax sale. Their demurrer to that complaint was .sustained; he excepted, and declining to further amend, judgment was rendered against him.
This action was commenced in March, 1884, is grounded upon the assigned error of the court in sustaining the demurrer, and the object of it is to have a review of the proceedings and a vacation of the judgment. A copy of the complaint to which the demurrer was sustained, together with the demurrer and all the proceedings in the case, are incorporated and made a part of the complaint in this action. To this complaint appellants filed a demurrer, which, over their objection and exception, was overruled, and the judgment which had been rendered against appellee was vacated and set aside.
If the original complaint is sufficient, this action of the court is correct; if that complaint is not sufficient, the court
The material portions of the complaint may be summarized as follows: Prior to and on the 9th day of February, 1880, one William Wilson was the owner of the S. E. ¿ N. E. i, S. 20, T. 20 N., R. 7 E. “ Through the mistake, error, oversight and inadvertence of the auditor of Madison county, said real estate above described was placed upon the tax duplicate in the name of said William Wilson, and was so carried forward from year to year on the tax duplicate of said county, * * * by the'following incorrect, insufficient and erroneous description, to wit: A part of the west half of the southeast quarter of section 20, township 20 north, range 7 east, 40 acres, more or less, in Madison county, Indiana, which erroneous description was intended to cover and embrace the real estate first above described, and was the only real estate upon the duplicate and taxed in the name of said William Wilson for the years for the taxes on which the same was sold. * * * Said William Wilson did not own any real estate in said county other than that first above described, and the same was not taxed nor paid in the name of any other person.” On the 9th day of February, 1880, the real estate so owned by Wilson, and by the incorrect description, was among the lands returned delinquent for the non-payment of State and county taxes, and on that day, at a general sale by the county treasurer of such delinquent lands, appellee bought the Wilson land, and paid therefor $140.87, “the same being the amount due thereon for State and county taxes, costs, interest and penalties.” In pursuance of the sale, and upon the day thereof, the treasurer executed and delivered to appellee a certificate of purchase. On the 15th day of February, 1881, the county auditor made and delivered to appellee a deed for the land so sold. This deed was recorded on the same day.
The demurrer, of course, admits all of the facts sufficiently pleaded in the complaint.
The substance of appellant’s objections to this complaint, as presented by her counsel, is, that by the averments therein it appears that the tax deed was prematurely issued, and that the complaint should, but does not, contain the averments that the Wilson land was liable to taxation; that it had been assessed; that the taxes were unpaid at the time of the sale; and that there had been no redemption from the sale. If land is not liable to taxation, or if liable the taxes have been paid before sale, or if after sale the land has been redeemed, the purchaser can not enforce a lien for any amount that he may have paid. 1 R. S. 1876, pp. 124, 129, sections 228, 229, 256, 257; R. S. 1881, sections 6487, 6488, and sections 6496, 6497, as amended by the act of 1883, Acts 1883, pp. 95-6. With these exceptions, it is well settled by the adjudications of this court that a lien for the amount paid ata tax sale, and for subsequent taxes paid by the purchaser, may be enforced against the land in favor of the purchaser, where, as in this case, by mistake, the land is erroneously and insufficiently described. Cooper v. Jackson, 71 Ind. 244; Cooper v. Jackson, 99 Ind. 566 ; Sloan v. Sewell, 81 Ind. 180; Reed v. Earhart, 88 Ind. 159; Peckham v. Millikan, 99 Ind. 352. See, also, 1 R. S. 1876, p. 124, section 229; R. S. 1881, section 6488; Acts 1883, p. 95, sections 2 and 3.
The purpose of these statutes is to facilitate the collection of taxes, by inflicting penalties upon the delinquent owner,
We think that the court below ruled correctly in overruling appellant’s demurrer to the complaint for review, and that the judgment should, therefore, be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.