50 Minn. 491 | Minn. | 1892
On September 20,1880, this relator became the purchaser of certain “school lands,” so called, at a sale of the same for delinquent taxes, thereby acquiring, (1878 G. S. ch. 38, § 21,) in case no redemption was made, the rights and interests of the parties who had previously obtained state certificates, in the manner prescribed in sections 7 and 8 of said chapter. On the 1st day of June of each of the three succeeding years he paid the taxes about to become delinquent on the lands, taking the usual receipts from the county treasurer; thus paying the taxes for the years 1880, 1881, and 1882. The original holders and owners of the state certificates failed to redeem from the tax sale of 1880, and neglected to pay to the state the annual interest due from them on June 1, 1880, or the interest thereafter falling due; thus forfeiting all claims to the land. Sections 9, 19. The relator made no effort to be substituted in place of the original purchasers from the state, and on May 1, 1883, — more than two and a half years after the tax-sale certificates were obtained, — the land commissioner resold the lands to strangers to these transactions. After the enactment of Laws 1889, ch. 187, relator surrendered his certificates, receiving out of the county treasury the amount paid for the same, and, under the provisions of Laws 1891, ch. 6, he now demands the sums of money paid by him as taxes subsequent to the purchase of the tax-sale certificates. The question presented is the constitutionality of the act of 1891. This involves a consideration of the power of the legislature to control, dispose of, and summarily deprive a municipal corporation of the
The relator, under the existing law, was entitled to a refundment, of his money, as were all other purchasers at the sale, in case the-judgment under which he purchased was adjudged void. In addition to this right, common to all purchasers, he was in a position,, no redemption being made, to secure property rights of more or less value, depending upon what had theretofore been paid to the state* That he did not ultimately secure all that he might have had, because-he omitted to make proper application and payment to the state auditor, cast no more of an obligation or duty upon the county or upon the state to reimburse him than would have been cast had he allowed other tax-sale certificates to supersede those held by him. By his. own default he lost the amount of his investments; not by reason of any neglect or omission of the county officers. By means of the act, of 1891, the legislature simply appropriated funds already in the-county treasury to a private purpose, in which neither county nor state had any interest, and in respect to which there existed no obligation, legal, equitable, or moral, upon either county or state. Much that was said in the Foley Case in respect to the invalidity of that portion of Laws 1881, ch. 10, which increased the rate of interest, can be applied here, for the controlling principles are the same.. We are obliged to hold that, in so far as they relate to school lands,, the provisions of Laws 1891, ch. 6, are unconstitutional and void*.
The case is remanded, with directions that the alternative writ be-quashed and set aside, as demanded by defendant, county auditor.