Coughlin v. Gray
| Decision Date | 09 April 1881 |
| Citation | 131 Mass. 56 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
| Parties | Ann Coughlin v. Benjamin A. Gray & another. Jeremiah Coughlin v. Dennis Mahoney & another. Same v. Same & others |
Argued November 3, 1880
Essex. Three actions of tort. The declaration in each case contained a count for assault and battery, a count for trespass and a count for trover. The cases were tried together in the Superior Court, before Allen, J., who, after a verdict for the defendants, allowed a bill of exceptions, the substance of which appears in the opinion.
Exceptions sustained.
C Sewall, for the plaintiffs.
J. A Gillis, for the defendants.
As a justification of their forcible entry into the premises occupied by the plaintiffs, the defendants relied upon a mortgage deed from Jeremiah Coughlin, one of the plaintiffs, to Harriet Stearns, a sale under the power contained in said mortgage, and a deed, dated May 13, 1878, from the mortgagee to Perkins, one of the defendants, under whose directions the other defendants acted. As against the mortgagor, if his rights only were concerned, and he were occupying the premises as his own, Perkins had the superior right of possession, and in such case the plaintiffs could not maintain either of these actions. Low v. Elwell, 121 Mass. 309.
But, in reply to the defendants' case, the plaintiffs offered in evidence a deed of the premises from the tax collector of the city of Salem to the city, dated July 20, 1877, a sale of the premises having been made for taxes duly assessed upon them; and also offered evidence tending to show that, at the time of the alleged trespass, they were occupying the premises as the tenants of the city of Salem. The court rejected this evidence.
A tax sale and deed under it, if duly made, convey to the purchaser a title paramount to that of a prior mortgagee. Parker v. Baxter, 2 Gray 185. The purchaser takes an estate defeasible by the payment by the mortgagor or mortgagee of the amount of the taxes, intervening charges and interest, but, until the redemption, he has the right of possession, and the prior mortgagee has no right of possession as against him. If the sale for taxes had been made under the Gen. Sts. c. 12, to a third party as purchaser, who had taken possession, it is clear that the mortgagee could not enter and expel him, because the purchaser has a right of possession which is superior to his.
In this case, the deed to the city of Salem was made under the St. of 1862, c. 183. This statute authorizes the collector in certain contingencies, to purchase an estate offered for sale for nonpayment of a tax, on behalf of the town or city by which the tax is assessed. The second section provides that the deed of the collector in such case ...
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Hopkins v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue
...two years after the date of the tax sale. Mass. Anno. Laws, supra, ch. 60, Sec. 45. A town may purchase the property for taxes, Coughlin v. Gray, 131 Mass. 56, but it may not foreclose the owner's right of redemption until after the expiration of the statutory two-year period, City of Bosto......
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