Moulton v. Egery

• Decision Date: 28 December 1883
• Citation: 75 Me. 485
• Parties: JOSEPH MOULTON v. THOMAS N. EGERY.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

75 Me. 485

JOSEPH MOULTON v. THOMAS N. EGERY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

December 28, 1883

ON REPORT.

Writ of entry. The plea was the general issue.

At the trial, plaintiff introduced the following deed of the state treasurer and offered what was admitted to be a transcript of the state treasurer's books, so far as they relate to taxes and the payment of taxes in township No. 8, Range 9, N W. P. Elliotsville.

" To all persons to whom these presents may come.

I, S C. Hatch, treasurer of the state of Maine, send greeting.

Whereas, in obedience to the provisions of c. 6, § 46, of the Revised Statutes, in relation to the collection of taxes in unincorporated places, the said treasurer caused to be published a notice containing a list of all tracts of land lying in unincorporated places which have been forfeited to the state for state taxes, or county taxes, which had been certified according to law to the treasurer of state together with the amount of such unpaid taxes, interest and cost on each parcel, and that the same would be sold at the treasury office in Augusta, on the sixth day of September, A. D. 1876, at eleven o'clock A. M. in the state paper, and a paper in the county where said lands are situate, (where any such were published,) three weeks successively before the day of sale, and within three months thereof; and whereas, said list contained the following described parcel of land so forfeited, situate in the county of Piscataquis, viz: 11607 acres, No. 8, Rg. 9, N. W. P. Elliotsville, upon which there was due and payable for taxes, interest and costs, the sum of forty-one forty-three one-hundredths dollars, including its proportion of the state tax for 1874, and the county tax for the same year, certified to the treasurer of state according to law.

And whereas, on said sixth day of September, 1876, at eleven o'clock A. M. at the treasury office in Augusta, said treasurer did sell the interest of the state in said premises to Joseph Moulton at auction for the sum of forty-one and forty-three one-hundredths dollars, he being the highest bidder therefor, and his bid being a price not less than the full amount due thereon for such unpaid state and county taxes, interest and cost of advertising, as required by law.

Now, know ye, that I, S. C. Hatch, in my said capacity in consideration of the premises and of the payment of the said sum of forty-one and forty-three one-hundredths dollars, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby sell and convey to him, the said Joseph Moulton, his heirs and assigns forever, all the interest of the state by virtue of said forfeiture, in and to said premises so sold as aforesaid. To have and to hold the same, with all the privileges thereof to him the said Joseph Moulton, his heirs and assigns forever, subject to all taxes assessed thereon subsequent to the year eighteen hundred and seventy-four, provided, however, that any owner or part owner thereof shall have the right to redeem his proportion of the same at any time within one year, by paying or tendering to the purchaser, or treasurer of state, his proportional part of what the said Joseph Moulton paid for the same, with interest at the rate of twenty per cent. per annum and the cost of conveyance, as provided in c. 6, § 48, of the Revised Statutes."

Signed, sealed, acknowledged and delivered.

Henry Farrington, for the plaintiff, contended that the description in the deed was sufficient because it was the only description the treasurer could make.

An assessment upon a whole township in solido, designating the number and range is good. Adams v Larrabee, 46 Me....