Powell v. Greenstreet

• Decision Date: 07 May 1888
• Citation: 95 Mo. 13,8 S.W. 176
• Parties: POWELL v. GREENSTREET.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

8 S.W. 176

95 Mo. 13

POWELL v. GREENSTREET.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

May 7, 1888.

TAXATION — SALE FOR TAXES — TITLE OF PURCHASER.

A purchaser at a sheriff's sale, on execution in a tax suit acquires only the title of the defendant in the suit, and Rev. St. Mo. 1879, § 6839, which declares that his deed "shall be prima facie evidence of title, and that the matters and things therein stated are true," does not make the deed evidence of title in such defendant.

Appeal from Moberly court of common pleas; G. H. BURCKHARTT, Judge.

Ejectment brought by J. M. Powell against J. M. Greenstreet. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals.

H. Lander and A. W. Myers, for appellant. Sears & Guthrie and W. M. Rutherford, for appellee.

BLACK, J.

Action of ejectment. Plaintiff put in evidence two deeds to himself, each for different portions of the premises sued for. The deeds were executed by the sheriff of Macon county, and are based upon judgments recovered in the name of the state to the use of the collector, in suits to enforce the state's lien for unpaid taxes. In one case the judgment was rendered against Mathsulah Bevier and W. D. Hicks, and in the other against W. D. Hicks. Plaintiff offered no other evidence of title whatever. It was admitted that the land had always been vacant up to the time defendant went into possession, that he had possession at the commencement of the suit, but it does not appear when or under whom he acquired possession. It must be taken as the settled law that purchasers at these sheriff's sales, made on executions in tax suits, acquire only the right, title, and interest of the defendants in the tax suits. Watt v. Donnell, 80 Mo. 196; Bank v. Grewe, 84 Mo. 478; Evans v. Robberson, 92 Mo. 192, 4 S. W. Rep. 941. But, conceding this, the plaintiff then insists that the deed makes out a prima facie case of title in the grantee, that is to say, of former ownership of the land by the defendants in the tax suits. This claim is based on section 6839, Rev. St. 1879, which declares that the deed "shall be prima facie evidence of title, and that the matters and things therein stated are true." The effect of this section is to make the deed evidence without production of judgment or execution; but it is evidence of no more than it, in contemplation of law, purports to be, namely, a conveyance of all of the title of the defendants in the execution. It is no evidence that the defendants in the special execution were the owners of the...