366 Pa. 404 | Pa. | 1951
Opinion by
The Tax Claim Bureau of Schuylkill County, by petitions filed in separate proceedings, sought approval of the court below of two proposed private sales of lands formerly owned by the Western Anthracite Coal Company. The Commissioners of the County had acquired the properties described in the petitions in 1942 and 1944 at County Treasurer’s sales for unpaid taxes wherein ten different taxing bodies had participating interests, viz., the County of Schuylkill, Schuylkill County Institution District, and the Township and School District, respectively, of each of the four following Townships of the County: Tremont, Frailey, Hegins and Porter. The petitions were filed under the provisions of Section 702(h) of the Beal Estate Tax Sale Law of July 7, 1947, P. L. 1368, 72 PS § 5860.-702.
The principal question raised by the appellants is whether a Tax Claim Bureau, under the Real Estate Tax Sale Law of 1947, may sell at private sale, without a prior offer at public sale at an upset price, real estate acquired by the County Commissioners at a tax sale prior to January 1, 1948, and duly turned over to the Tax Claim Bureau, i.e., prior to January 1, 1949: see Sec. 701. The appellants raise two subordinate questions, preliminarily, (1) as to whether the County Commissioners acquired the lands in question prior to January 1, 1948, and (2) if so, whether the properties were transferred to the Tax Claim Bureau by proper action of the County Commissioners. If all of these questions are answered in the affirmative, the appellants raise a still further question, of an administrative nature, as to whether the private sales of the various tracts
The appellants’ assertion that the County Commissioners had not acquired the lands in question prior to January 1, 1948, is based on their contention that the County’s title to the property was not complete by virtue of the Treasurer’s sales in 1942 and 1944 because the late owner had filed exceptions to the sales, which exceptions were not disposed of until July 11, 1949. On that date the exceptions to the 1942 sale were sustained by agreement of the parties and the exceptions to the 1944 sale were withdrawn by the exceptant and a decree of absolute confirmation was entered. The 1944 sale had, for some unexplained reason, resold the property which the 1942 sale had embraced. The sales had been held under the Act of May 29, 1931, P.L. 280, as amended, 72 PS §5971i. By Section 12 of that Act, it is only such exceptions as are sustained (and the court deems the defect not amendable) for which the court shall by order or decree “invalidate the sale.” The effect of the ultimate decree of absolute confirmation was to confirm title to the property in the Commissioners as of the time of the return of the 1944 sale and its confirmation nisi which well antedated January 1, 1948. Nor is that sale to be inquired into any longer following the absolute confirmation thereof. See Sec. 607 of the Act of 1947, supra, which carried forward, without substantial change, the like provisions of the Act of 1931, supra. The appellants’ contention in this particular lacks legal basis and the learned court below was, therefore, correct in concluding that the County Commissioners acquired the property here involved prior to January 1, 1948.
What the Commissioners turned over to the Tax Claim Bureau, in present regard, was delivered pursuant to Sec. 701 of the Act of 1947 and was the property acquired by them at the tax sale prior to the effective
Finally, the appellants argue that, even though the Tax Claim Bureau was properly possessed of the property in question prior to January 1, 1949, and was authorized by the Act to make private sale thereof without a prior public sale at an upset price, it was error nonetheless for the Bureau to have offered these properties for sale in bulk lots rather than piecemeal. That administrative matter might have assumed importance had the highest and best prices obtainable for the properties not been received for them through the private sales actually made and approved. The learned court below searched the question of price thoroughly. At the time fixed for a hearing on the petitions, viz.,
Decree affirmed at appellants’ costs.
Simulating the procedure prescribed by Section 613(b) of tbe Real Estate Tax Sale Law of 1947 for tbe private sale of properties not sold at public sale l)y the Tax Claim Bureau for want of a sufficient bid, tbe Bureau disapproved tbe offers to purchase at private sale in tbe present instances and, upon tbe written instructions of tbe Commissioners of tbe County, an interested taxing district, submitted its petition for tbe proposed sales to tbe Court of Common Pleas of tbe County for approval.