Howie v. Panola-Quitman Drainage Dist.

• Decision Date: 20 November 1933
• Docket Number: 30772
• Citation: 168 Miss. 387,151 So. 154
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: HOWIE v. PANOLA-QUITMAN DRAINAGE DIST. et al

151 So. 154

168 Miss. 387

HOWIE v. PANOLA-QUITMAN DRAINAGE DIST. et al

No. 30772

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 20, 1933

Division A

Suggestion Of Error Overruled January 1, 1934.

APPEAL from chancery court of Quitman county HON. R. E. JACKSON Chancellor.

Bill of complaint by Virgil Howie against Panola-Quitman Drainage District and others. From a decree dismissing the bill complainant appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed.

Howie & Howie, of Jackson, for appellant.

State and county taxes are a lien on property from the first day of January of the year in which the assessment shall be made, and are entitled to preference over all judgments, executions, encumbrances and liens whensoever created.

Sections 3120, 3256, 3273, Code of 1930.

The purport of these legislative enactments for the collection of revenue for the running of the government of the state of Mississippi, sections 3120, 3256, 3273, Code of 1930 in effect says to the purchaser: You purchase property sold for state and county taxes and if the same is not redeemed within the statutory period the state guarantees you a perfect title to the property free and clear of all liens and encumbrances of any kind and character.

The contention of the appellees is that a special tax levied upon property in a particular locality is equal or superior to a tax levied by the state of Mississippi upon the same property. In other words, appellees contend that the special assessment and tax on property in Quitman county is of greater importance than a tax levied by the state of Mississippi, for the entire state of Mississippi, and all of the citizens therein. Section 112 of [168 Miss. 389] the Mississippi Constitution provides that taxes shall be equal and uniform throughout the state. To sustain the contention of appellees would be nullifying this provision of our state constitution, because it would in effect be saying that drainage district and school taxes in Quitman county are superior to state ad valorem taxes there, but in Hinds county, where there is no drainage district, state and county taxes would be superior.

Counsel for appellant interpret section 112 of the Mississippi Constitution to mean that state and county taxes shall be equal and uniform in each and every county in the state of Mississippi. That the statute providing for the collection of state and county taxes shall have the same force and effect in each and every county in the state of Mississippi.

There is no provision in section 4469, Code of 1930, or any other section in regard to assessments for drainage taxes whereby the Legislature has declared that such assessments shall be superior to state and county taxes, or even equal with the same. Unless such a legislative declaration has been made in clear and uncertain terms, then a sale for state and county taxes vests in the purchaser thereof a perfect title. To hold otherwise would be to endanger seriously the government of the state of Mississippi.

La Mesa, Lemon Grove & S. V. Irr. Dist. v. Hornbeck, 17 P.2d 143; Lister v. Riddle, 296 P. 770; Andrews v. North Side Canal Co., 12 P.2d 263; Pennsylvania Co. v. City of Tacoma, 79 P. 306; State v. Board of Com'rs of Cascade County, 296 P. 1; Heffner v. Ketchen, 296 P. 769; Little Red River Levee Dist. v. State, 52 S.W.2d 46.

The contention of appellant is that where land has sold for state and county taxes and the title was matured in the purchaser, then such purchaser has a perfect title to the property, which means that the property is free and clear of all claims for drainage assessments both delinquent and unmatured.

Section 3273, Code of 1930.

This case must be decided, we say primarily, upon the laws in force in the state of Mississippi, applicable thereto, but we may also look to the decisions of other states in regard to the effect of the sale of lands for state and county taxes, and in connection therewith we cite the following cases:

Lucas v. Purdy, 120 N.W. 1063; Dougherty v. Henarie, 47 Cal. Rep. 9; White v. Thomas, 98 N.W. 101; Clark v. Zaleski, 253 Ill. 63; 61 C. J., sec. 1839.

Burch, Minor & McKay, of Memphis, Tennessee, for appellee.

The Legislature never designed that land which has undergone a tax sale shall enjoy any greater exemption from the burden of taxation than other hands. No immunity from taxation attaches to any land merely by virtue of its having passed through a tax sale.

The Legislature never designed that land enjoying the benefits of a school and a drainage project, as a result of which its value is greatly enhanced, should ever escape liability for the expense of those improvements.

Section 3272, Code of 1930.

Ch. 195 of the Acts of 1912 as amended by ch. 269 of the Acts of 1914; Seward v. City of Jackson, 165 Miss. 478; Union Sav. Bank v. Jackson, 122 Miss. 388; Board of Com'rs v. Garland Levee District, 181 Ark. 898, 28 S.W.2d 721; St. Louis Union Trust Co. v. Franklin Trust Co. (C. C. A.), 52 F.2d 438.

The party redeeming must pay all accrued taxes.

Sec. 3264 of the Code of 1930; Sec. 3267, Code of 1930; Sec. 3270 of the Code of 1930; Sec. 3152, Code of 1930.

An enforceable lien for payment of school district and drainage district bonds accrues only from the time the board of supervisors levies, as the statute authorizes and requires it to do, a tax for those purposes for a particular year. Such taxes, therefore, come in exactly the same category as state and county taxes which become a lien for each year on January 1st of that year.

Vicksburg, etc. R. Co. v. Nattin (C. C. A.), 58 F.2d 979; McAnally v. Little River Drainage District (Mo. Sup.), 28 S.W.2d 650.

To sustain the contention of the appellant here would constitute a violation of the guarantee of due process contained in the Fourteenth Amendment and the guarantee in the same amendment against the deprivation of the equal protection of the law. It would equally be a violation of the Mississippi constitutional provision to the same effect.

The decision in the case of Goff v. Jacobs, 145 So. 729, in no respect interferes with the contentions made for the appellees here.

James McClure, of Sardis, for appellees.

Although the drainage lien attaches to the land from the date that the same is levied by the court, nevertheless the same does not accrue to the land and become a fixed encumbrance thereon until the board of supervisors determines, orders, and levies the amount of the installment of benefits to be collected in each year.

Chapter 195 of the Mississippi Laws of 1912; Sections 4469 and 4470 of the Mississippi 1930 Code; Section 4492, Code of 1930.

It is true that the lands in question became bound for the amount of the assessment from the date that the assessment of benefits was confirmed by the chancery court and it may be said that the lien under the assessment then attached to the lands. However, this lien could only accrue to the land for foreclosure purposes by tax sale when the annual tax levy is made by the board of supervisors. It is then that the debt becomes ascertained and fixed and accrues to the land.

McAnally v. Little River Drainage District, 28 S.W.2d 650; Elsberry Drainage District v. Winkelmeyer, 278 Mo. 268, 212 S.W. 893; State v. Ryan (Okla.), 221 P. 761; Gilmor v. Dale, Tax Collector (Utah), 75 P. 932; Black on Tax Titles, 189; Dowdney et al. v. The Mayor, etc., 54 N.Y. 186; City of Portland v. Multnomah Co. (Ore.), 296 P. 49; American Agri. Chemical Co. v. Brock (N. C.), 151 S.E. 869; Larson v. Gilderoy (Idaho), 267 P. 234; Branch v. Saunders, 141 S.E. 593, 195 N.C. 176; Baldwin v. Frisbie (Wash.), 270 P. 1025; Field v. Porter, 270 P. 1027; Turley v. St. Francis Rd. Dist. No. 4 (Ark.), 287 S.W. 196; Taylor v. Richardson, 176 N.C. 217, 96 S.E. 1027; State v. Stuart, 283 P. 305, 41 Idaho 126; Wilson v. Matteson, 177 P. 746, 25 N. Mex. 67; Adams v. Lumber Co., 114 Miss. 545.

Section 4469 of the 1930 Code provides that a drainage lien shall continue until the drainage assessment is paid and the revenue laws of this state preserve this lien until the drainage assessment is paid in full and do not provide for the cancellation of the same on the sale of property therein for state and county taxes.

Carrier Lumber & Mfg. Co. v. Quitman County, 125 So. 416; 2 Sutherland on Statutory Construction (2 Ed.), par. 487; Hammer v. Yazoo Delta, Lbr. Co., 100 Miss. 349; Middleton v. Lincoln County, 122 Miss. 673; Gamet's Estate v. Lindner (La.), 106 So. 22; Seward v. City of Jackson, 165 Miss. 478, 144 So. 686.

Section 4469 of the 1930 Code provides that the drainage lien shall continue until the drainage assessment is paid.

Price v. Harley, 142 Miss. 584, 107 So. 673; Baldwin v. Frisbie, 270 P. 1025; Turley v. St. Francis Co. Road Improvement Dist. No. 4 (Ark.), 287 S.W. 196; Ledegar v. Bockoven County Treas. (Okla.), 185 P. 1097; City of Indianapolis v. City Bond Co. (Ind.), 84 N.E. 20.

Even if the court should hold otherwise, under the laws of the state of Mississippi the sale of land for delinquent taxes to an individual does not remove the lands from the field of taxation in the future.

Carrier Lumber & Mfg. Co. v. Quitman County, 106 Miss. 397; Bank & T. Co. v. City of Jackson, 122 Miss. 557; Erwin v. Lee, 118 Miss. 207, 79 So. 104.

Section 4469 of the 1930 Code provides that the drainage assessment shall continue until the benefits are paid which provision of law constitutes a material part of the contract of the purchasers of the bonds of the district and if the court should hold that the sale of the lands of the district for delinquent state and county taxes cancelled this lien, this holding would be tantamount to impairing the obligation of the bondholders' contract and will offend the Federal and state Constitutions in this regard.

Nelson...