Powers v. Sawyer

• Decision Date: 09 December 1905
• Citation: 62 A. 349,100 Me. 636
• Parties: POWERS et al. v. SAWYER.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

62 A. 349

100 Me. 636

POWERS et al.

v. SAWYER.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Dec. 9, 1905.

Exceptions from Supreme Judicial Court, Aroostook County.

Petition by Frederick A. Powers and others against Louise J. Sawyer for partition. Judgment for petitioner, and defendant excepts. Exceptions overruled.

The following was the petition:

"To the honorable justice of the Supreme Judicial Court next to be holden at Caribou, in and for the county of Aroostook, on the 1st Tuesday of December next.

"Respectfully represents Frederick A. Powers, Simon Friedman, and Jennie Wilson, all of Houlton, and John P. Donworth, of Caribou, all in said county of Aroostook, and Elaine Wilson, also of said Houlton, an infant under the age of 21 years, who joins in this petition by said Jennie Wilson, her guardian, that they are seised in fee simple and as tenants in common of and in certain real estate situated in said county of Aroostook, to wit: Township No. thirteen (13), in the seventh range of townships west of the east line of the state of Maine, excepting the public lots; the township containing twenty-two thousand forty acres exclusive of the public lots, which have been set out, and are described as follows:

"Commencing at a cedar stake on the north line of the township one mile and a half east from the northwest. corner, and running south, one mile, to a cedar stake; thence east, five hundred rods, to a hemlock tree marked 'Public Lot'; thence north, one mile, to a cedar stake and stones on the north line of the township; thence west on said north line, five hundred rods, to the point begun at, according to plan of said township designated as plan No. 17, and recorded in the land office of the state of Maine. That your petitioners are the owners of four hundred fifty-one undivided five hundred fifty-first (451-551) parts thereof with Louise J. Sawyer of Bangor, in the county of Penobscot, and said state, who is seised of one hundred undivided five hundred fifty-first (100-551) parts thereof, and who also owns the pine and spruce timber which was standing on said township December 3, A. D. 1850, and that your petitioners desire to hold their undivided interests in severalty; that is, they desire to hold their undivided interests separately from, and independently of, the said Louise J. Sawyer.

"Wherefore, they pray that notice to all persons interested, to wit, the said Louise J. Sawyer, may be ordered; that commissioners may be appointed; that the interests of your petitioners may be set out to them to be held in fee and in severalty—that is, in common and undivided as among themselves, but separately from, and independently of, the interest of the said Louise J. Sawyer.

"Houlton, Maine, October 1, A. D. 1903.

"Frederick A. Powers.

"Simon Friedman.

"Jennie Wilson.

"John P. Donworth.

"Elaine Wilson,

"By Jennie Wilson, Guardian."

The following was the deed from the state of Maine to Milton S. Clifford: "To all Persons to whom These Presents may come, I, F. M. Simpson, Treasurer of the State of Maine, send greeting: Whereas, in obedience to the provisions of chapter 6, section 73, 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 have been certified according to law to the Treasurer of State, together with the amount of such unpaid taxes, interest, and costs on each parcel, and that the same would be sold at the treasury office in Augusta on the twenty-eighth day of September, A. D. 1899, at eleven o'clock a. m., in the state paper and in a paper in the county where said lands are situated (where any such was published) three weeks successively before the day of sale and within three months thereof. And whereas said list contains the following described parcel of land so forfeited, situate in the county of Aroostook, viz.: 4,520 acres in 13, range 7, W. E L. S., upon which there was due and payable for taxes, interest, and cost the sum of thirty-eight and 6-100 dollars, including its proportion of the state tax for 1897 and of the county tax for the same year, certified to the Treasurer of State according to law. And whereas, on said twenty-eighth day of September, 1899, at eleven o'clock a. m., at the treasury office in Augusta, said treasurer did sell all the interest of the state in said premises to Milton S. Clifford at auction for the sum of forty-one 0-100 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, F. M. Simpson, in my said capacity, in consideration of the premises and of the payment of the said sum of forty-one 0-100 dollars, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby sell and convey to him, the said Milton S. Clifford, 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 Milton S. Clifford, his heirs and assigns, forever, subject to all taxes assessed thereon subsequent to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven: 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 Milton S. Clifford paid for the same, with interest at the rate of twenty per cent. per annum, and the cost of conveyance, as provided in chapter 6, section 75, of the Revised Statutes.

"In witness whereof, I, the said F. M. Simpson, in my said capacity, have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine.

"F. M. Simpson, State Treasurer. [L. S.]

"Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of D. W. Emery. [L. S.]"

"Kennebec—ss.: Oct. 25, A. D. 1899. Personally appeared the...