Crorow Hardwood Company v. Moye
| Decision Date | 16 November 1931 |
| Docket Number | 29501 |
| Citation | 137 So. 493,161 Miss. 642 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | CROROW HARDWOOD COMPANY et al. v. MOYE et al |
Fees for tax deed were not "costs of tax sale," and failure of bid to cover such fees did not invalidate sale (Rev. Code 1880, sections 523, 524, 528, 531, 536).
HON. T PRICE DALE, Chancellor.
APPEAL from chancery court of Pearl River county HON. T. PRICE DALE Chancellor.
Suit by Eva Moye and others against the Crorow Hardwood Company and others. Decree for plaintiffs, and defendants appeal. Reversed, and decree rendered for appellants.
Reversed and decree here for appellants.
Shivers & Shivers, of Poplarville, Jack Shivers and L. L. Tyler, of Picayune, and W. J. Gex, of Bay St. Louis, for appellant.
If no person will bid for it (the land), the whole amount of the taxes and all costs the collector shall strike off the same to the State.
Cost above referred to could only be the damages, the printers fee, and the taxes. There was no provision in law for any other cost, and when no one bid that particular amount then, and only then, could the land be sold.
He (the sheriff) shall also be allowed one dollar for every conveyance made by him for land sold to individuals for taxes--the clerk of the chancery court shall be entitled to twenty-five cents for taking and certifying the acknowledgement of each conveyance.
That fee did not accrue if the land was sold to the State because the sheriff was entitled to no money for making out the list of lands sold to the State, that was a fee that accrued only if someone had bid more than the amount of taxes and cost and a deed had to be made to the purchaser, it was a fee in which the State was not concerned. It was the compensation of the sheriff who was under the fee system, for making the deed, and the usual twenty-five cents to the clerk for his acknowledgment, at a time when the State could have no interest in the matter and after the amount of all taxes and costs had been paid.
Any person may redeem the same (referring to the land) within the two year time by paying to the clerk the whole amount of taxes for which such land was sold, with all costs and charges consequent upon said sale.
In this case some one did bid more than the amount of taxes and costs, the amount in which the State was interested, but when it became necessary to make a deed then the purchaser became liable independently to the sheriff for making the deed.
The tax collector recites in the deed that the party bidding in this land paid all the whole amount of taxes and all cost as is provided by section 525, and that in addition thereto the purchaser bid seventeen cents excess. Under the law he could not sell the land to the State, under these circumstances, because Poitevent & Favre had bid more than the statute authorized the State to bid. And if the deed made to the purchaser under these circumstances is invalid, then no sale of these lands could have been made by the tax collector at all, because the. State could not become the purchaser for more than forty-eight cents and more having been bid there could be no sale under the law.
The sheriff was not entitled to collect fees for sales of land in advance of the duties performed by him, and the clerk.
Hathorn & Williams, of Poplarville, for appellees.
If upon offering all the land of any delinquent tax payer constituting one tract, no person will bid for it the whole amount of the taxes and all costs, the collector shall strike off the same to the state. He shall execute conveyances to individuals purchasing lands at such sale; and he shall on or before the first Monday of April thereafter transmit to the auditor of public accounts a certified list of the lands struck off by him to the state, specifying the day of the sale, and the amount of the taxes for which the sale is made, and each item of cost incident thereto.
The collector shall be allowed an additional compensation of ten per cent on all taxes collected by him after the fifteenth day of December, to be collected from the delinquent tax payer by distress or otherwise; he shall also be allowed one dollar for every conveyance made by him for land sold to individuals for taxes, and one dollar for each distress and sale of personal property; the clerk of the chancery court shall be entitled to twenty-five cents for taking and certifying the acknowledgment of each conveyance, and ten cents for every legal subdivision or land separately described in the list of lands sold to the state, for recording the same, and twenty cents for each separately described division of land advertised shall be allowed to the publisher of the newspaper for advertising it, which fees shall be charged by the collector in the bill of costs, and be collected by him, for the persons entitled thereto. The auditor shall also be entitled to five cents for every legal subdivision of land separately described in the list of lands sold to the state and recorded by him, but the state shall not be liable for and shall not pay any of the foregoing fees, except those due the publisher of the newspaper for advertising the lands sold to the state, which shall be allowed to the collector by the auditor, on settlement, and shall be paid by the collector to the person entitled thereto. The fees due the clerk of the chancery court, and the auditor under this section, shall be collected on the redemption or purchase of the land, as hereinafter provided for, and shall be paid to the parties entitled thereto.
The tax collector failed to comply with the above quoted sections of the Code of 1880, in that he sold said land to an individual for less than the whole amount of all taxes and costs. The amount of all taxes and costs, excluding the excess of seventeen cents, as set out on the deed, was one dollar and seventy-three cents, while the amount of the bid, as set out in the face of the deed, is sixty-five cents.
The requirements of the statute that the tax collector shall strike the land off to the state, if no person will bid the whole amount of the taxes and costs, is mandatory; and a sale to an individual who bids less than the full amount of taxes, damages and all costs is void.
Yazoo Delta Mortgage Co. v. Lumbley, 116 So. 95.
By the express language of the section 524, Code of 1880, each of these items of cost, viz.: the sheriff's ten per cent on delinquent taxes, his one dollar for making conveyances, the chancery clerk's twenty-five cents for certifying acknowledgments, and the printer's twenty cents for each separately described division of the land for advertising the same, accrued and became chargeable against the delinquent for the taxes thereon; and that by the express requirements of section 523 of the Code of 1880. The tax collector is required to make the lands bring the whole amount of taxes and all costs before he can strike the same off to an individual.
There is but one way provided by law whereby the tax collector can collect these items which he is required to charge in the cost bill, and that is by a sale of the land of the delinquent. There is but one time when the tax collector can collect these items of cost, and that is when he sells the land of the delinquent for the taxes due thereon. There is but one person whom the tax collector can require to bid and pay these items of cost at the sale, and that is the individual to whom the land is struck off. There is but one way in which this individual can become liable for and be made to pay these items of costs, and that is by his bid at the delinquent tax sale.
If a sale for less than the amount of taxes, damages, and costs can be made, and if it were valid when made, the state might be wholly unable to collect this revenue from the land so taxed, as the individual might be insolvent and the land would be the only means of affording the state a certainty of securing its revenue. On the other hand, it would be highly prejudicial to the individual owner, for the reason that the lands might be put up and sold for a mere fraction of the taxes due, leaving a personal debt due by him to the state which could be collected by judgment and execution, as a debt due by the debtor to the state under section 4256, Code 1906 (Hemingway's Code 1927, par. 8189). See, in this connection, also:
Womack v. Central Lumber Co., 131 Miss. 201, 94 So. 2; Hewes v. Seal, 80 Miss. 437, 32 So. 55; Brannan v. Lyon, 86 Miss. 401, 38 So. 609; Yazoo Delta Mortgage Co. v. Lumbley, 116 So. 95.
The statutes authorizing a forfeiture of land for the nonpayment of taxes are in derogation of the common law. They operate harshly, and frequently with injustice to private rights, and should, therefore, receive a strict interpretation. The operation of these statutes should be confined within the narrowest limits of the language employed.
Hopkins v. Sandidge, 31 Miss. 688.
Argued orally by J. Shivers, for appellant, and by Fleet Hathorn, for appellee.
The appellees, consisting of a child of F. A. Moye, deceased, and descendants of other children, as heirs-at-laws, filed their bill against the Crorow Hardwood Company, L. O. Crosby, and Lamont Rowland, setting up title to a certain forty-acre tract of land in Pearl River county deraigning their title through their ancestor, F. A. Moye, from the government to the state, and letters patent from the state to F. A. Moye, and alleging that the defendants had cut timber from these lands of the value of two thousand five hundred dollars, and sought a recovery from the appellants for the value thereof.
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... ... Mortgage Co. v. Lumley, 116 So. 79, 149 Miss. 864; ... Crorow Hardwood Co. v. Moye, 137 So. 493, 161 Miss ... 642; Tucker Printing ... ...
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