Price v. England

• Decision Date: 26 March 1884
• Parties: RUTH A. PRICEv.J. D. ENGLAND.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

109 Ill. 394

1884 WL 9803 (Ill.)

RUTH A. PRICE

v.J. D. ENGLAND.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed at Springfield Mar. 26, 1884.

WRIT OF ERROR to the Circuit Court of Champaign county; the Hon. C. B. SMITH, Judge, presiding.

Mr. F. M. W. PRICE, for the plaintiff in error.

Mr. WM. B. WEBBER, for the defendant in error. Mr. CHIEF JUSTICE SHELDON delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was an action of ejectment, wherein there was judgment for the defendant, and the plaintiff appeals to this court.

The plaintiff's claim of title was under a tax deed made upon a sale of the premises, for taxes, on June 17, A. D. 1878. The point of attack on the tax deed is as to the sufficiency of the notice of the sale for taxes.

Section 5, article 9, of the constitution of 1870, requires that the General Assembly shall provide by law for reasonable notice to be given to the owners or parties interested, by publication or otherwise, of the fact of the sale of real property for taxes, and when the time of redemption shall expire: ““ Provided, that occupants shall in all cases be served with personal notice before the time of redemption expires.” Section 216 of the Revenue act, (Rev. Stat. 1874, p. 893,) as amended May 31, 1879, (Laws 1879, p. 256,) provides that no purchaser of real property at a sale for taxes shall be entitled to a deed for the property so purchased until he shall have complied with certain named conditions, one of which being, that he shall “serve, or cause to be served, a written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, notice of such purchase on every person in actual possession or occupancy of such land or lot; also, the person in whose name taxed; * * * also, the owners of, or parties interested in, said land or lot, * * * if they can * * * be found, * * * at least three months before the expiration of the time of redemption on such sale.” Section 217 of said act provides, “that every purchaser, by himself or agent, shall, before he shall be entitled to a deed, make an affidavit of his having complied with the conditions of the foregoing section, stating particularly the facts relied on as such compliance.” The affidavit, under the last section, relied on in this case, after stating the service of notice of the sale of the premises for taxes on certain other persons named, proceeds: “That on the 11th day of February, A. D. 1880, affiant served a notice on J. D. England, the owner, occupant, and person in whose name...