Adams v. Mills

• Decision Date: 11 December 1893
• Citation: Adams v. Mills, 71 Miss. 150, 14 So. 462 (Miss. 1893)
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: J. R. ADAMS v. W. T. MILLS

14 So. 462

71 Miss. 150

J. R. ADAMS v. W. T. MILLS

Supreme Court of Mississippi

December 11, 1893

October 1893

FROM the circuit, court of Quitman county, HON. R. W. WILLIAMSON Judge.

Action of unlawful entry and detainer, in which plaintiff relied upon a tax-title. The case was tried without a jury. Judgment for plaintiff; defendant appeals. The opinion contains a further statement of the case.

Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

J. W. &amp W. D. Cutrer, for appellant.

When the clerk marked the deed canceled, and sent it out of his office before the expiration of the year, the deed lost its vitality. Code 1880, § 531. The clerk became the debtor of the purchaser for the amount of the redemption money. He could not rid himself from that liability, or afterwards revive the tax-title, by taking back the canceled deed.

All persons interested are by the statute directed to the clerk's office, where they may learn if their lands have been sold for taxes. The rights of an owner cannot be prejudiced by the action of the clerk in allowing a tax-deed to be withdrawn from his office before the expiration of the time allowed for redemption. Blackwell on Tax-titles, 299; Ives v. Lynn, 7 Conn. 505.

All redemptions, no matter by whom made, inure to the benefit of the owner. Greene v. Williams, 58 Miss. 752; Jamison v. Thompson, 65 Ib., 516.

Under the admitted facts, the court should have adjudged the tax-deed void.

J. S. Montgomery, for appellee.

Although the deed was marked canceled, the redemption money was not paid as had been agreed, and the entry of cancellation was marked error, and the deed was restored to the files. As no part of the redemption money was paid, there was no redemption. Land sold for taxes can only be redeemed within the period fixed by the statutes, and on payment of the full amount of taxes for which the sale was made and subsequently accruing damages. Code 1880, § 531. The judgment appealed from is correct, and should be affirmed.

Argued orally by J. W. Cutrer, for appellant.

OPINION

COOPER, J.

Under the law, the owner of the land sold for taxes was entitled to redeem the same at any time within one year from the day of sale, and the deed from the collector to the purchaser was required to be deposited by that officer with the clerk of the chancery court, there to remain during the period of redemption, unless the land should be sooner redeemed; and upon...