State ex rel. Hall v. Cowgill

• Decision Date: 30 April 1884
• Citation: 81 Mo. 381
• Parties: THE STATE ex rel. HALL, Collector, v. COWGILL et al., Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

81 Mo. 381

THE STATE ex rel. HALL, Collector,

v.COWGILL et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April Term, 1884.

Appeal from Jasper Circuit Court.--HON. JOSEPH CRAVENS, Judge.

AFFIRMED

Harding & Buler for appellants.

The tax bill was clearly void for uncertainty in the description. City of Jefferson v. Whipple, 71 Mo. 519. And the trustee's deed upon which the court seems to have predicated its finding, could only tend to worse confusion. The deed calls for twenty-five acres, while the petition calls for twenty-seven. For aught that appears, Butler and Gilbert may still own the land on which these taxes were assessed, and the circuit court is not county assessor.

A. G. Williams for respondent

EWING, C.

This was a proceeding under the statute to recover back taxes on certain real estate in Jasper county, in which the plaintiff claims, and by this suit seeks to enforce a lien against “twenty-seven acres, part southwest quarter, northeast quarter, part southeast quarter, northeast quarter section 21, township 29, range 32, for 1877, and twenty-seven acres, part southwest quarter, northeast quarter, part southeast quarter, northeast quarter, section 21, township 29, range 32, 1878. The above land of twenty-seven acres being more particularly known as the Cowgill and West mill property, being the same land conveyed to defendants by Eugene O'Keefe, by trustee's deed dated January 21st, 1878, and recorded in deed-book 45, pages 477, 478, 479, in recorder's office of Jasper county, Missouri.”

To sustain the issues on its part, the plaintiff offered in evidence a tax bill, signed by W. E. Hall, collector of the revenue, within and for Jasper county, and State of Missouri, and which reads as follows:

STATE OF MISSOURI,

)

)

ss.

County of Jasper.

)

I, W. E. Hall, collector of the revenue, in and for the county of Jasper, in the State of Missouri, do hereby certify that the following amounts of back taxes remain delinquent in favor of the several funds for the several years, and upon the real estate lying, and being situate in said county and State, set opposite thereto, to-wit: Name of owner, Albert G. Cowgill, Isaiah M. West; acres 27, part southwest quarter, southeast quarter, section 21, township 29, range 32; part southeast quarter, northeast quarter, section 21, township 29, range 32, 1877 and part” (here repeating this description for the year 1878 and extending the several sums for the different taxes). “In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand at the town of Carthage, in said county and State, this 20th day of January, 1880.

W. E. HALL,

Collector revenue in and for Jasper county, Mo.”

To the introduction of which defendant objected for vague and indefinite description, and for showing on its face there was no valid assessment. Plaintiff then offered in evidence the...