Hull v. Greeley

• Decision Date: 06 March 1893
• Citation: 12 So. 469,31 Fla. 471
• Parties: HULL, Clerk v. GREELEY.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

12 So. 469

31 Fla. 471

HULL, Clerk v. GREELEY.

Florida Supreme Court

March 6, 1893

Error to circuit court, Duval county; W. B. Young, Judge.

Mandamus by J. C. Greeley against Noble A. Hull, clerk of the circuit court, to compel defendant to execute a tax deed to plaintiff. There was judgment awarding a peremptory writ, and the defendant brings error. Reversed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

The authority of tax collectors to sell lands for unpaid taxes was abrogated by the general revenue law of 1891, (chapter 4010,) and the act providing for certifying to the comptroller lands upon which taxes have not been paid (chapter 4011;) and consequently a sale of land for unpaid taxes of 1890 by a tax collector in the year 1891, after such statutes took effect, is illegal. They took effect August 4 1891, the legislature having adjourned finally on the 5th day of the preceding June.

COUNSEL Cooper & Cooper for plaintiff in error.

W. B Owen, for defendant in error.

OPINION

RANEY C.J.

On the 7th day of September, 1891, R. H. Ramsey bought lot 4 of block 83 in the city of Jacksonville, which was sold that day at public outcry by the tax collector of Duval county for unpaid state and county taxes of the year 1890. Ramsey paid the sum which he had bid, and on the 15th day of the same month the collector issued to him a certificate stating the fact of such sale, and that Ramsey or his assigns would be entitled to a deed of conveyance of such land in accordance with law, unless the same should be redeemed within one year by the payment of the amount, with interest at the rate of 25 per cent. per annum. Ramsey transferred the certificate to one Hinchman, and the latter assigned to Greeley, and in October last Greeley brought mandamus against the plaintiff in error, the clerk of the circuit court of Duval county, to compel him to execute a deed for the land. A peremptory writ was awarded.

The controlling question, in view of our conclusions, is whether or not the law as it was on the day of the sale authorized the sale of the land for taxes of 1890. This question involves that of the effect of the legislation of 1891 upon the prior statutes authorizing and regulating the sale of land for nonpayment of state and county taxes. The sale of this land for its taxes of 1890, had there been no legislation in 1891, or if that legislation does not apply to such sale, would have been governed entirely by the general revenue act of 1887, (chapter 3681,) approved June 13, 1887 as amended by the acts of June 3, 1889, (chapter 3847,) and May 28, 1889, (chapter 3848.) The last of these chapters--3848--took the place of the forty-seventh section of the act of 1887, and provided that, if the taxes upon any real estate should not be paid before the 1st day of February of any year, the tax collector should advertise and sell in the manner therein directed, and sections 39-42 of the act of 1887 regulated the sale of personal property for all taxes. The collector's warrant provided for by section 32 of this act of 1887 required the collector to make all collections by levy and sale of goods and chattels, lands and tenements, on or before the first Monday in March, and to make a full report to and settlement with the county commissioners before the third Monday in that month. The same section enacted also that, if the collector should fail or omit to obey the command of the warrant as therein required, it should be the duty of the county commissioners to issue another warrant in the same form, naming and appointing therein such day as in their judgment should be proper, not exceeding 60 days from the first Monday in March, by which the taxes should be collected and paid over and final settlement made with the comptroller and commissioners. The fifty-seventh section allowed one year next succeeding the sale of any land by collectors for the redemption thereof on the terms and in the manner therein stated.

If the act of 1887, as thus amended, controls of itself the question before us, the redemption period of one year prescribed by it had passed before the day (September 21, 1892) on which application was made to the clerk for a deed, or that (October 31st) on which resort was made to the courts for relief; and, it not being pretended that a redemption of the land had been made, the relator was entitled to a deed. We, however, must ascertain the effect of the legislation of 1891 on the law as it stood at the time of the enactment of that legislation. The legislation of that year to be considered consists of two statutes,--one, chapter 4010, entitled 'An act of for the assessment and collection of revenue,' (the same title as that of the general revenue law of 1887, supra;) and the other, chapter 4011, entitled 'An act to provide for certifying lands to the comptroller upon which taxes have not been paid, for the redemption thereof, and for the forfeiture and sale of lands not redeemed.' Each of these statutes was approved June 10, 1891, and, under the operation of section 18 of article 3 of the constitution, went into effect August 4, 1891, or 60 days from the final adjournment of the legislature, which adjourned sine die on the 5th day of June.

The former of these acts, (chapter 4010,) which, as such acts are usually described, is the general revenue law of 1891, has no section like chapter 3848, supra, the amended forty-seventh section of the act of 1887, providing for the sale of land for taxes, but sections 44-47, inclusive, provide for and regulate the sale of personal property; and, while the thirty-seventh section of the statute (chapter 4010) occupies in it a similar place to that held in the act of 1887 by the thirty-second section thereof, supra, and prescribes the form of warrant to be issued to the collector, that warrant's command or direction is that the taxes on personal property shall, in case they are not paid by the 1st day of March of any year, be collected by the sale of goods and chattels of the person so assessed, and that the tax on personal property must be collected without resort to real property,' and it expressly requires that on the 1st day of April the collector shall 'certify to the comptroller the amount of taxes due and unpaid on real property, in such manner and form as the comptroller may direct,' and requires a final settlement with the comptroller and county commissioners on or before the 10th day of April. The next, or thirty-eighth, section, after providing, like the thirty-second section of the act of 1887, for the issue of the second warrant in the same form as the first, but returnable not later than the first Monday in March, enacts in the form of a proviso that 'all warrants now outstanding shall be of full force and effect until all taxes remaining unpaid, other than those upon lands and tenements, shall have been collected, and final report and settlement made by the tax collectors with the state and county authorities; and all warrants heretofore issued or to be issued shall be of full force and effect as to goods and chattels in the hands of any successor, immediate or remote, of the collector to whom it may have been or may be issued.'

Pausing to consider the effect of this act of 1891, (chapter 4010,) in so far as we have stated its provisions, and not failing to remember that it is a statute of fifty-eight sections covering every subject...