13 Pa. Commw. 475 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1974
Opinion by
This is an appeal of the owner of real estate from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery
The issue is whether the Tax Claim Bureau mailed the notices required by the Act to be sent to owners whose properties are liened and scheduled for tax sale to the appellant “at [its] last known post office address,” as required by sections 308 and 602 of the cited Act, 72 P.S. §§5860.308, 5860.602.
The relevant facts are as follows:
The taxpayer, Wyndmoor Estates, Inc., purchased a 43 acre parcel of land in Abington Township in 1964. Although the tract was physically one, it had been assessed to a former owner as two parcels, one described in the county assessor’s tax duplicate as “Acreage SWS Moreland, 500 Moreland Road,” assessed at $21,100, and the other as “7A SWS Moreland Road,” assessed at $2400. Two tax bills, one for each of the separately assessed but contiguous parcels were sent to Wyndmoor Estates, Inc. for some years thereafter at 6801 Crittenden Street, Philadelphia 19, Pennsylvania.
In early 1968, Montgomery County took by eminent domain 14 acres of Wyndmoor’s land, all, it is agreed, being in that portion of the land assessed and recorded in the tax duplicate as “Acreage SWS Moreland, 500 Moreland Road.” In connection with the condemnation, correspondence was conducted between an assistant county solicitor and Paul Yermish, Esq., an officer of and counsel for Wyndmoor. Mr. Yermish’s mail was addressed to him at his office at 1942 Suburban Station Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
We are not given the exact date in 1968 when the two bills for local taxes for that year were sent to Wyndmoor
Some time after his visit to Montgomery County, Mr. Yermish received one bill on which was typewritten the words “CORRECTED BILL.”
Mr. Yermish’s testimony concerning his visit to the tax collector and the assessor was not rebutted. It is corroborated by the fact, however, that a corrected bill for 1968 was issued and by the further fact, crucial to this case, that the 1969 duplicate prepared by the assessor and delivered, according to the assessor’s testimony, to the tax collector soon after the first of January 1969, gives as Wyndmoor’s address, 1942 Suburban Station Building, Philadelphia.
Section 307 of the Real Estate Tax Sale Law requires that claims for delinquent taxes for the preceding year be filed by the local tax collector in the office of the Tax Claim Bureau on or before the first Monday of May. Although the Abington Township tax collector had in his possession the 1969 tax duplicate revealing Wyndmoor’s address as 1942 Suburban Station Building and although Wyndmoor had paid a bill for taxes on part of its property in the amount of $1859.76 on April 7,1969, the tax collector filed a claim for $254.01, the amount due for the 1968 taxes on the seven acre parcel and provided to the Bureau as Wyndmoor’s address, 6801 Crittenden Street, Philadelphia 19, Pa. The Tax Claim Bureau sent the notice of the entry of claim required by Section 308 of the Real Estate Tax Sale Law, 72 P.S. §5860.308 to Wyndmoor to the Crittenden Street address on or about July 31, 1969. This was returned to the Bureau undelivered.
The 1970 duplicate prepared by the county assessor also gave Wyndmoor’s address as 1942 Suburban Sta
The seven acres were sold by the Bureau on September 14, 1970 to the appellee in this case for a sum apparently much less than its market value.
We have no difficulty in the circumstances concluding that neither the notice of the entry of the claim of July 1969 nor that of the tax sale of July 1970 was sent to Wyndmoor’s last known address. The last known address was 1942 Suburban Station Building, that provided by Mr. Yermish to both the tax collector and the assessor in 1968 and shown on the duplicates delivered in the early part of years 1969 and 1970. The Director of the Tax Claim Bureau used for his notices only the address provided him by the tax collector when the claim was filed. The records of the assessment office were not referred to because as the Director explained, “[w]e have too many properties to get into that before sale time” and “[i]t’s the responsibility of the property owners to notify the post office of their whereabouts” and “[w]e have no dealings with the Assessor.” By law, it is the Bureau’s responsibility to send its notices to the last known address. While
Order reversed; the appellant’s exceptions to the return of the Tax Claim Bureau are sustained and the sale of the appellant’s property excepted to is hereby set aside.
The bills are dated July 15, 1968.
The bill, although a corrected bill, includes a penalty charge of five percent.
Counsel for the purchaser at the tax sale argues that the word “refused” hand written on the envelope of this mailing should indicate that someone representing Wyndmoor refused the mailing. This is not a fair inference.
There were no improvements on the property on that date. A house which had been on the property had been burned by the local fire department by arrangements with Mr. Yermish in 1969. A notice from the township health department to Wyndmoor dated March 1969 regarding this dwelling gives as Wyndmoor’s address “Mr. Paul Yermish, President, 1250 Suburban Station Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.”