Nesbit v. Bearman

• Decision Date: 09 July 1910
• Docket Number: 16,649
• Citation: 109 P. 1085,83 Kan. 122
• Parties: ANNIE M. NESBIT, Appellee, v. HENRY BEARMAN, Appellant
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

109 P. 1085

83 Kan. 122

ANNIE M. NESBIT, Appellee, v. HENRY BEARMAN, Appellant

No. 16,649

Supreme Court of Kansas

July 9, 1910

Decided July, 1910.

Appeal from Stanton district court.

Judgment reversed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. WORDS AND PHRASES--"Purchaser at Any Tax Sale"--Grantee in Compromise Tax Deed. The assignee of a tax-sale certificate of lands bid in by the county for delinquent taxes who takes out a compromise tax deed is a purchaser at a tax sale.

2. COMPROMISE TAX DEED--Clerk May be Required to Include More than One Tract. Chapter 248 of the Laws of 1889 entitled "An act concerning tax deeds" (Gen. Stat. 1909, § 9480), which authorizes a purchaser at any tax sale where more than one tract of land is sold to require the county clerk to include all such tracts in one deed, applies to a compromise tax deed.

3. COMPROMISE TAX DEED--Separate Tracts Sold to the Same Purchaser at Separate Tax Sales. A compromise tax deed which has been of record more than five years is not void for the reason that it includes separate and disconnected tracts of land which were sold to the same purchaser at separate tax sales.

George Getty, for the appellant.

Thomas A. Scates, and Albert Watkins, for the appellee.

OPINION

PORTER, J.:

A compromise tax deed which had been of record more than five years and under which the appellant claimed title was held to be void on its face.

The objection to the deed is that it includes several separate and disconnected tracts of land which were not sold at the same tax sale. In support of the judgment of the district court the appellee contends that there is nothing in the statutes to authorize the county clerk to include in a compromise tax deed several tracts of land unless all the tracts were sold at one sale. Section 9480 of the General Statutes of 1909 (Laws 1889, ch. 248) provides:

"In any case where any purchaser at any tax sale shall purchase more than one parcel or tract of land or lots, he may require the county clerk to include all such lands or lots in one deed, stating the amount of tax, interest and penalty for which each separate tract is sold and conveyed, the sum of which separate amounts shall be the gross or aggregate consideration of the deed."

The appellee's contention is that this section has no application to compromise tax deeds; that the grantee of a compromise deed is not a "purchaser at any tax sale." The appellant agrees to this contention, but, on the other hand, argues that the county clerk always had authority to include in one tax deed separate tracts of land sold to the same purchaser; that prior to the enactment of the statute it was optional with the clerk whether to make one or more deeds; and that the only purpose of the statute was to authorize the purchaser to require the clerk to do so in cases of ordinary tax deeds. The appellant therefore concedes that he could not have required the clerk to include more than one tract in this deed, because it is a compromise deed, but claims that, no statute being necessary to authorize separate tracts to be included, the deed is valid.

In our opinion both parties are in error with respect to the application of section 9480, as well as to the definition of a "purchaser at any tax sale." Lands bid in by the county at a tax sale are sold as much as though they were bid in by an individual. The compromise statute speaks of the transaction as a sale for taxes of lands which are bought in by the county. The assignee takes from the county a tax-sale certificate. In ...