Fleming v. Weaver

• Decision Date: 27 March 1911
• Citation: 136 S.W. 189
• Parties: FLEMING et al. v. WEAVER.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

136 S.W. 189

FLEMING et al. v. WEAVER.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 27, 1911.

Appeal from Crittenden Chancery Court; Edward D. Robertson, Chancellor.

Action between Ida Fleming and others and C. W. Weaver. From a decree for the latter, the former appeal. Affirmed.

Randolph, Randolph & Randolph, for appellants. Norton & Hughes, for appellee.

McCULLOCH, C. J.

This case involves the title to two tracts of land in Crittenden county, and turns on the question of validity of a sale of the land under decree of the chancery court of that county to enforce payment of the levee assessment of the board of directors, St. Francis levee district. At the time the suit to collect the levee assessment was commenced, the lands in controversy were wild and unoccupied, and were owned by O. C. Friedlander, one of appellee's grantors, who was a nonresident of the state. The lands had been sold to one Henry Fleming by the collector for state and county taxes. The time for redemption had not expired, but the lands were unredeemed, and stood on the tax books in the name of Fleming. They were proceeded against as the lands of Fleming, and, being a resident of the county, he was summoned to appear in the suit. They were not proceeded against as the lands of a nonresident, and were not embraced in the warning order published.

Did the court have jurisdiction to decree a sale of the lands for unpaid levee assessments? The statute authorizing the foreclosure proceedings reads, in part, as follows: "Notice of the pendency of such suit shall be given as against nonresidents of the county and the unknown owners by publication weekly for four weeks prior to the day of the term of court on which final judgment may be entered for the sale of said land, * * * which public notice shall be in the following form." The specified form of notice contains this provision: "There shall follow a list of supposed owners, with a description of said delinquent lands and amounts due thereon respectively," etc. The statute contains the further provision with respect to resident owners and occupied lands: "As against any defendant who resides in the county where such suit may be brought, and who appears by the record of deeds in said county to be the owner of any of the lands proceeded against, notice of the pending suit shall be given by the service of personal summons of the court at least twenty days before the day on which said defendant is required to answer, as set out in said summons. * * * And provided further, actual service of summons shall be had when the defendant is in the county or when there is an occupant upon the land." Acts...