City of Boston v. Grasse
| Decision Date | 05 January 1945 |
| Citation | 317 Mass. 523,59 N.E.2d 3 |
| Parties | CITY OF BOSTON v. DE GRASSE et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Suit by City of Boston against Eleanor De Grasse and others for foreclosure of all rights of redemption in a parcel of registered land to which city claimed to hold a tax title. From a decision for city, respondents appeal.
Decision affirmed.Appeal from Land Court, Suffolk County; J. R. Cotton, Judge.
Before FIELD, C. J., and LUMMUS, DOLAN, RONAN, and WILKINS, JJ.
S. S. Dennis, Asst. Corp. Counsel, and W. H. Kerr, both of Boston, for petitioner.
J. F. Sullivan, of Boston, for respondents.
This is a petition to the Land Court under G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 60, § 65, as amended, St.1938, c. 305, by a municipality claiming to be the holder of a tax title, for the foreclosure of all rights of redemption in a parcel of land the title to which was registered under G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 185. From a ‘decision’ in favor of the petitioner, the respondents, persons having interest in the land, appealed. Harrington v. Anderson, (Joyce) 316 Mass. 187, 192, 55 N.E.2d 30.
The facts are as follows. The tax title, the right to redeem from which the petitioner seeks to foreclose, was acquired by the petitioner by a tax taking on January 18, 1939, duly registered on March 4, 1939, for nonpayment of the tax for the year 1937 upon the land described in the petition, assessed to Rosie Garmarnick, who then owned the equity of redemption. On April 13, 1937, the petitioner had bought the same land at a tax sale for nonpayment of the tax for the year 1935. The tax deed was dated April 26, 1937, and was recorded in the registry of deeds as though the land were unregistered. On April 25, 1938, the taxes for 1935 and 1936 were paid by a mortgagee, and the treasurer of the petitioner gave the mortgagee a release of the interest of the petitioner under the tax deed dated April 26, 1937, and this release was recorded in the registry of deeds as though the land were unregistered.
With certain exceptions not material to this case (G.L. c. 60 § 61A, inserted by St.1943, c. 188), a municipality holding a tax title cannot acquire a second tax title upon the same land. G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 60, § 61, as last amended by St.1936, c. 93, § 1. Landers v. City of Boston, 267 Mass. 17, 165 N.E. 676.City of Boston v. Jenney, 282 Mass. 168, 184 N.E. 464.Snow v. City of Marlborough, 301 Mass. 422, 17 N.E.2d 318.City of Quincy v. Wilson, 305 Mass. 229, 25 N.E.2d 369;Boston v. Barry, 315 Mass. 572, 576, 53 N.E.2d 686.
The tax deed dated April 26, 1937, was not valid ‘unless recorded within sixty days after the sale,’ which took place on April 13, 1937. G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 60, § 45, as last amended by St.1938, c. 339, § 1. Wood v. Wilson, 256 Mass. 340, 152 N.E. 355. A tax deed not so recorded conveys no title whatever. Powers v. Radding, 225 Mass. 110, 114, 115, 113 N.E. 782.Wood v. Wilson, 256 Mass. 340, 342, 152 N.E. 355. It is not prima facie evidence of the facts essential to its validity. G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 60, § 45, as last amended by St.1938, c. 339, § 1. By G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 4, § 7, Seventeenth, the word “recorded',...
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City of Chicopee v. Manset Realty Corp.
...1933 tax deeds were not void upon the ground that they had not been properly recorded, as was the was the case in City of Boston v. De Grasse, 317 Mass. 523, 59 N.E.2d 3, and City of Newton v. Noone, 319 Mass. 374, 65 N.E.2d 921. A duly recorded tax deed is prima facie evidence of all facts......
- City of Boston v. De Grasse