Gibson v. Branstool

• Decision Date: 12 March 1910
• Docket Number: 16,384
• Citation: 82 Kan. 59,107 P. 770
• Parties: CHARLES E. GIBSON, Appellee, v. GEORGE BRANSTOOL, Appellant
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

107 P. 770

82 Kan. 59

CHARLES E. GIBSON, Appellee, v. GEORGE BRANSTOOL, Appellant

No. 16,384

Supreme Court of Kansas

March 12, 1910

Decided January, 1910.

Appeal from Decatur district court; WILLIAM H. PRATT, judge.

Judgment reversed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. COUNTIES -- Purchase at Tax Sale -- Disposition of Land Not Redeemed in Three Years. Where a county adopts the provisions of chapter 162 of the Laws of 1891 (Gen. Stat 1901, §§ 7659-7661), and land is taken for the county thereunder and remains unredeemed for three years or more, the county commissioners may dispose of it for less than the legal charges against it, or it may be conveyed to any person who offers to pay the legal charges due thereon without the intervention of the county commissioners.

2. TAX DEEDS -- Time of Execution after Assignment of Certificate. Where such land is disposed of for a sum less than the legal charges due thereon, then, under the provisions of section 7672 of the General Statutes of 1901 (Laws 1893, ch. 110, § 4), six months must intervene between the date of the assignment of the certificate and the execution of the deed, but not otherwise.

3. TAX DEEDS Consideration -- Separate Statements of Selling Price and Subsequent Taxes. Where a county held land taken under this law for more than three years the certificate was assigned to a purchaser for the full amount of legal charges against the land, and a tax deed was executed therefor on the same day. From the recitals in the tax deed it appeared that the amount of consideration received for the deed consisted of the amount of the original sale, with interest to the date of the deed, and the amount of the subsequent taxes, with interest to the same date, which amounts were separately stated, instead of being named as one lump sum, as contemplated by the statutory form of deed. Held, that this irregularity does not make the deed void.

J. E. Peters, and Langmade & Caster, for the appellant.

Fred Robertson, for the appellee.

OPINION

GRAVES, J.:

This is an action of ejectment, commenced by Charles E. Gibson in the district court of Decatur county to recover the possession of the land in controversy. The defendant, George W. Branstool, was in the actual possession of the land, and had been in possession thereof for more than three years prior to the commencement of this action. The rent for these three years is worth the sum of $ 50. The defendant has paid as taxes on the land the sum of $ 281.42. The plaintiff holds the patent title and claims ownership thereunder. The defendant claims under a tax deed which was executed September 2, 1899. It was therefore recorded more than five years before the action was commenced.

The only question involved is the validity of the tax deed. The case was tried to the court without a jury. Special findings of fact and conclusions of law were filed by the court. The tax deed reads:

"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS: That whereas the following-described real property, viz., southeast one-fourth of section twenty-one (21), township four (4) south, range twenty-eight (28) west of the 6th P. M. in Kansas, situated in the county of Decatur and state of Kansas, was subject to taxation for the year A. D. 1893; and whereas the taxes assessed upon said real property for the year aforesaid remained due and unpaid at the date of the sale hereinafter mentioned; and whereas the treasurer of said county did on the 4th day of September, A. D. 1894, by virtue of the authority in him vested by law, at Oberlin, Kan., the sale begun and publicly held on the first Tuesday of September, A. D. 1894, expose to public sale, at the county seat of said county, in substantial conformity with all the requisitions of the statutes in such cases made and provided, sell the real property above described for the payment of the taxes, interest and costs then due and remaining unpaid upon said property; and whereas, at the place aforesaid, said property was bid off by the county treasurer for said county for the sum of six dollars and 27 cents, the whole amount of taxes and charges then due; and whereas, for the sum of ten dollars and 92 cents, paid to the treasurer of said county on the 2d day of September, A. D. 1899, the county clerk did assign the certificate of sale of said property, and all the interest of said county in said property, to said Dan Caster, of the county of Decatur and state of Kansas; and whereas the subsequent taxes for the years 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, amounting to the sum of $ 35.78, have been paid by the purchaser, as provided by law; and whereas three years have elapsed since the date of said sale and the said property has not been redeemed therefrom as provided by law; now, therefore, I, W. H. Andrews, county clerk of the county aforesaid, for and in consideration of the sum of forty-seven dollars and five cents, taxes, costs and interest due on said land for the years 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, to the treasurer paid as aforesaid, and by...