110 Ind. 208 | Ind. | 1887
Complaint by Martha Worley against The Town of Cicero, charging that said town is a municipal corporation of Hamilton county, in this State ; that, on the 16th day of February, 1881, the defendant, by one Franklin C. Collins, its clerk, at a pretended salé of lands for delinquent taxes, assumed to sell to the plaintiff part of the northwest quarter of section 6, in township 19 north, of range 5 east, containing four acres, for the sum of $109.59, she being the highest bidder for said land; that the plaintiff jjaid said sum of $109.59 to the treasurer of said town of Cicero, whereupon said Collins, as clérk of said town, issued to her a certificate of her said purchase, stating, amongst other things, that in case of the non-redemption of such land, she would, at the expiration of two years, he entitled to receive a tax deed for the same; that said- pretended sale was illegal and void for the following reasons : First. That the certificate of purchase, issued as above, shows upon its face that the land was sold at a private sale; Second. That, while said certificate
A demurrer to the complaint for insufficiency of the facts allsged was sustained, and the plaintiff declining to plead further, final judgment was given against her upon demurrer.
It will be observed that this was not an action to enforce .a lien upon land for taxes paid by the holder of a tax deed ■or a tax certificate; nor was it a claim for the refunding of taxes wrongfully assessed and paid. It was, upon the facts stated, simply and only an action to recover back the purchase-money paid for lands sold for taxes due an incorporated town, at what is charged to have been an illegal, and hence invalid sale, for reasons other than a wrongful assessment.
The rule that money voluntarily paid, under a mistake of law merely, can not be recovered back, is too well established to require the citation of authorities. This rule is applicable to voluntary payments made upon taxes assessed upon, or .against the owner of, taxable property, except where a different provision is made by statute. Board, etc., v. Armstrong, 91 Ind. 528; Durham v. Board, etc., 95 Ind. 182; Board, etc., v. Graham, 98 Ind. 279; State, ex rel., v. Casteel, ante, p. 174.
Cooley, in his work on Taxation (2d. ed.), at page 475, says: •“A tax sale is the culmination of proceedings which are mat
These general principles, and the cases supporting them,,, have led many of the courts to hold, and we think correctly, that a purchaser at a tax sale comes strictly within the rule caveat emptor. Hamilton v. Valiant, 30 Md. 139; Jenks v. Wright, 61 Pa. St. 410; Rice v. Auditor General, 30 Mich. 12.
If his title fails he has no remedy against the officer who-made the sale. Hamilton v. Valiant, supra. Neither can he demand indemnity from the corporation for the benefit of which the sale was made. Lynde v. Inhabitants, etc., 10 Allen, 49. See, also, Stevens v. Williams, 70 Ind. 536.
Conceding, therefore, without making any formal rulings upon them, that all the objections jnade to the validity of the
The judgment is affirmed, with costs.