Albertson v. Leca
| Decision Date | 07 July 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-15-A,81-15-A |
| Citation | 447 A.2d 383 |
| Parties | Thomas C. ALBERTSON v. Raoul D. LECA et al. ppeal. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
This is an appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court granting the plaintiff's petition to foreclose the defendants' right to redeem certain real estate that the city of Providence sold for delinquent taxes. 1 At a bifurcated hearing the trial justice made two findings against the defendants: first, that the defendants had improperly raised and thus waived any challenges to the validity of the plaintiff's tax title; and second, that the defendants were incapable of properly managing the real estate and therefore were not entitled to redeem. We sustain the first ruling and reverse the second.
On June 1, 1978, the city of Providence acquired title at a tax sale to a parcel of real estate located at the corner of Brown and Barnes Streets in Providence and owned by defendants Anne and Raoul Leca. The city more than one year later assigned the tax title to plaintiff Thomas Albertson, who on October 10, 1979, filed in the Superior Court a petition to foreclose the former owners' right of redemption. The trial justice set November 20, 1979, as the return date. Prior to November 20 defendants filed an answer and amended answer opposing foreclosure, seeking redemption, contesting the validity of the tax sale, and setting forth several counterclaims. The defendants did not, however, file specifications of tax-title defects until well after the November 20 return date. On both November 27, 1979, and December 4, 1979, defendants sought to incorporate specifications into the pleadings by way of motions, but both motions were denied. The first stage of the hearing on the petition to foreclose concerned, inter alia, defendants' right to file the specifications after the return date.
The second stage of the hearing centered on defendants' right to redeem the real estate from Albertson. The relevant facts are as follows.
In 1971 defendants Anne and Raoul Leca purchased for $45,000 a six-unit apartment building located at the corner of Brown and Barnes Streets in Providence, Rhode Island. The building was in very poor condition, and Raoul Leca by his own labor sought to make renovations. Leca testified at the redemption hearing in 1980 that since 1971 he had expended $30 to $50,000 in the course of replacing and repairing windows, replacing the existing heating system with modern boilers and baseboard units, plastering ceilings and walls, remodeling kitchens, installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, and working on the roof, plumbing, and wiring. Leca stated that he spent 800 to 1,000 hours yearly in the performance of this work.
A deputy state fire marshal on March 1, 1979, found that, despite Leca's efforts, the condition of the building threatened the safety of its seventeen or eighteen residents. The director of the Providence Department of Building Inspection also inspected the Leca premises on March 1, 1979, and at the hearing described the condition of the building as "deplorable." According to this witness the basement was full of debris, sewer pipes were leaking, the building's two stairways were 50 percent without plaster, wiring was exposed, and two upper-floor apartments were without heat. By the hearing date Leca had not yet brought the building officially into compliance with the appropriate fire codes and the minimum-housing code. At the hearing defendants sought with varying success to introduce evidence that they hoped would appeal to the equitable conscience of the court. The trial justice allowed Raoul Leca's testimony that his tax delinquency was caused by diversion of his funds for more compelling needs: Anne Leca's confinement to a psychiatric hospital, Raoul's own treatment for mental illness, and the restoration of another property that was damaged by fire. The trial justice refused to allow, however, testimony that prior to trial Raoul Leca was financially capable of redeeming the property and on several occasions sought to do so. The trial justice also precluded as irrelevant testimony establishing that the city of Providence acquired title to the Leca property for $4,287.14 and assigned it to Albertson for $12,579.22. A real estate expert had previously testified that the building was worth, in its imperfect condition, between $70,000 and $100,000.
On these facts the Superior Court justice made two decisions: (1) that G.L.1956 (1980 Reenactment) § 44-9-31 precluded defendants from challenging the validity of the tax title because defendants had failed to file specifications before the return date and (2) that defendants were not entitled to redeem because they were incapable of restoring the real estate to its intended use. We shall address the issues in the order in which they were presented.
Section 44-9-31 states that if one who owns an interest in real estate in respect to which a petition for foreclosure of the right of redemption has been filed seeks to contest the validity of the tax title
The defendants assert that the statutory language does not require the filing of specifications on or before the return day.
We concur with the Superior Court justice's determination that the statute does require the filing of specifications on or before the return day. This is the only reasonable construction of the statute. Were the section construed as allowing defendants to file specifications at any time, defendants would be granted a mechanism for indefinitely delaying the hearing on the petition for foreclosure and thus the final disposition of title. This could not have been the Legislature's intent in enacting a statute that seeks as part of its purpose the stabilization of tax titles. See Picerne v. Sylvestre, R.I., 404 A.2d 476, 478 (1979). Thus, Anne and Raoul Leca waived their right to challenge the validity of Albertson's tax title by their failure to file specifications on or before the November 20, 1979, return date, or to seek from the court prior to such date a further extension of time to file such specifications. 2
The second issue before us relates to the exercise of a Superior Court justice's discretion, under § 44-9-29, to allow or to deny redemption of real estate sold for taxes. 3 Relying on dicta in the case of Picerne v. Sylvestre, R.I., 404 A.2d 476 (1979), the Superior Court justice determined that title to real estate should be vested in the hands of "responsible" taxpayers. The justice then denied defendants' claim for redemption because defendants not only had demonstrated irresponsibility in maintaining the real estate in a habitable condition but also had shown no ability to restore the property to its intended use as a multiunit dwelling house. We find that the Superior Court justice misconceived the holding of Picerne and exceeded the bounds of his statutory discretion.
Although on its face the statute appears to grant Superior Court justices wide latitude in determining whether redemption shall be granted, the phrase "in its discretion" is here of quite limited meaning. In one sense the term "judicial discretion" simply means judicial judgment, and a judge must exercise his discretion in accordance with established principles of law. We have recently pointed out in State v. Tavarozzi, 446 A.2d 1048 at 1051 (1982), that judicial discretion may be divided into two general categories. The first category of discretion accords to judges freedom of choice unhampered by legal rules. For example, a decision to recess court or to grant a continuance in a case would not normally be reviewable by an appellate court. The second class of judicial discretion involves freedom of choice, but the choices are limited, bounded by law, and reviewable. As one court has stated, the exercise of discretion "is guided by the law--see what the law declares upon a certain statement of facts, and then decide in accordance with the law--so as to do substantial equity and justice." Faber v. Bruner, 13 Mo. 541, 543 (1850); see also 7 Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England 41 (London 1797). We hold that when the facts elicited at a tax-foreclosure proceeding reveal that the party seeking to redeem is ready, willing, and able to do so, established principles of law and equity require the Superior Court judge to allow redemption. A Superior Court justice's discretion then is not to determine which party would be the...
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