112 Ga. 216 | Ga. | 1900
But a single question arises in this case for our determination, and that is whether the execution under which certain land was sold was a valid and legal writ. If it was, the injunction sought in the court below by the plaintiff in error should have heen granted. If, however, it was void, then it would follow that the deed of conveyance, made by the sheriff by virtue of a sale under the execution, would likewise be void, and the ruling of the judge below in refusing to grant the injunction ought not in that case to be disturbed. The execution in question was issued for the purpose of collecting taxes alleged to be due to the State, and the County of Ware, on a certain lot of wild land, by the tax-collector of the county named. It did not issue by virtue of any judgment rendered, but was a statutory proceeding dependent 'for validity on the terms of the law which authorizes an execution to issue directly against land of this character, for the purpose of collecting taxes due, when the owner fails or refuses to return it for taxation. Section 821 of the Political Code provides, that “Any wild lands, not given in for taxes in the county in which they may be, shall be subject to double tax, as other property; and it shall be the duty of the receiver of tax returns, when taxes are' not paid in the time provided by law, to issue executions against said wild land, and . . to sell said lands for payment of taxes.” This section was codified from the act of 1881. Acts of 1880-1, p. 46. Subsequently the act was so amended as to require the execution to be issued by the tax-collector. Acts 1882-3, p. 47. It will be noted that under the statute such an execution could only legally issue against wild land which was not returned for taxation in the •county in which it is situated. Ordinarily an execution for taxes issues in personam, and it is only in the case of wild lands not returned for taxation that the statute authorizes the execution to issue against the land itself, instead of the owner. This provision was undoubtedly enacted because of the uncertainty of ownership ■of wild lands in the different counties of this State. This court has on more than one occasion been called on to decide as to the validity
Mr. Blackwell, in the same volume of his treatise to which reference has been made, §133, says; “In tax titles, the constitutional provisions regulating the taxing power, the statute levying the tax and prescribing the manner of enforcing its collection, and the acts of those to whom the execution of the power is intrusted, are all essential links in the chain of title,— all of them are matters of record, — and the purchaser is bound to take notice of all omissions or irregularities which have taken place in the proceedings under which he claims the estate.” In the case of Weimer v. Bunbury, 30 Mich. 201, Judge Cooley delivered a very able and elaborate opinion on a series of questions arising under a proceed
Judgment affirmed.