Seward v. City of Jackson
| Decision Date | 28 November 1932 |
| Docket Number | 30239 |
| Citation | 144 So. 686,165 Miss. 478 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | SEWARD v. CITY OF JACKSON |
1. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
Purchaser at city's ad valorem tax sale takes title subject to the city's lien for special improvement assessment installments (Code 1906, section 3428; Laws 1924, chapter 194, section 6).
2. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
Municipalities have no powers except those delegated to them by state.
3. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
Statutes construed as not freeing title acquired at city's sale for ad valorem taxes from lien for special improvement assessment do not violate constitutional provision respecting laws exempting property from taxation (Laws 1924, chapter 194, section 6; Code 1906, section 3428; Const. 1890, section 90, par. (h) ).
4 TAXATION.
Statutes construed as not freeing title acquired at city's sale for ad valorem taxes from lien for special improvement assessment do not violate constitutional provision requiring uniform and equal taxation (Code 1906, section 3428; Laws 1924, chapter 194, section 6; Const. 1890, section 112).
5 EQUITY.
Equity follows law in allowing city to maintain paramount lien for special improvements against purchaser at ad valorem tax sale (Code 1906, section 3428; Laws 1924, chapter 194, section 6).
HON. V J. STRICKER, Chancellor.
APPEAL from chancery court of Hinds county, HON. V. J. STRICKER, Chancellor.
Suit by D. Seward against the City of Jackson. Defendant's demurrer to the bill of complaint was sustained, and complainant appeals. Affirmed.
Affirmed.
Howie & Howie, of Jackson, for appellant.
Under our scheme of taxation the statutes provide that a tax deed shall vest the purchaser with the immediate right of possession to the land sold for taxes.
The municipal authorities of the City of Jackson were vested with the same right to sell property for taxes due to the city and make conveyances to the purchasers thereof with the same force and effect as deeds from the county tax collector, except that a sale by the city would be subordinate to a sale of the same year by the county.
Taxes, both state and county, assessed upon lands or personal property, shall bind the same, and be entitled to preference over all judgments, executions, encumbrances, or liens, whensoever created; and all taxes assessed shall be a lien upon and bind the property assessed, from the first day of January of the year in which the assessment shall be made; and no property shall be exempt from distress and sale for taxes.
Our statute uses the words "a perfect title." The word "perfect" is absolute and unequivocal in meaning. When a situation arises where a title is inferior to a lien or encumbrance, or is subject to charges or defects, or a superior interest is vested in some other party, then it ceases to be perfect.
The statute vested the appellant with a perfect title under his tax deed. In order to vest him with a perfect title all other liens and claims of the City of Jackson were cancelled and obliterated.
It is held in most jurisdictions that the title conveyed by a sale for nonpayment of taxes is not merely the title of the person who has been assessed for the taxes and had neglected to pay them, but a new and paramount title to the land in fee simple absolute created by an independent grant from the sovereign and free from all equities and encumbrances existing prior to the sale upon the title of the previous owner. Under this view the sale extinguishes all prior encumbrances on the land or interests in it, though held by persons who were not liable for the tax or in default for not paying it, such as the lien of pre-existing mortgages, and judgments, landlord's liens and inchoate rights of dower.
26 R. C. L. 401; Franklin Securities Co. v. Clay, 293 P. 529; Lucas v. Purdy, 120 N.W. 1063; McMillian v. Tacoma, 26 Wash. 358, 67 P. 68; City of Ballars v. Way, 74 P. 1067; Dougherty v. Henarie, 47 Cal. 9; Bennett v. Denver, Colo., 197 P. 768; Maryland Realty Co. v. City of Tacoma, 209 P. 1; Collins v. City of Spokane, 212 P. 150; Loveless v. City of Chehalis, 233 P. 301; City of Tacoma v. Fletcher Realty Co., 264 P. 997; State v. Jefferies, 270 P. 638; White v. Thomas, 98 N.W. 101; Clark v. Zaleski, 253 Ill. 63; Studley v. Luse, 173 P. 1182.
Where the statute makes the state taxes a superior lien to municipal taxes and local assessments, or where both classes of taxes are to be collected in the same manner and by the same proceedings, those of the latter class will be cut off and their lien extinguished by a sale for state taxes in which the local taxes or assessments might have been included.
The holding of the court below is in violation of sections 90 and 112 of the Constitution itself.
The City of Jackson cannot be heard in equity to assert any claim to defeat its own deed.
The ad valorem taxes were a part of the claims held by the city and a sale for that wiped out all claims.
42 C. J. 245, 246; 41 C. J. 892.
One holding several liens upon the same property, and so causing the same to be sold in satisfaction of one of these liens without having secured in the foreclosure decree any protection for the preservation of the other lien, cannot maintain a subsequent suit to foreclose such other lien, and the purchaser at the sale took the property discharged of the other lien. The doctrine of these cases it seems should apply to tax liens.
W. E. Morse, of Jackson, for appellee.
The governing authorities shall by resolution, approve and confirm all assessments as finally fixed and adjusted at said hearing and such assessments shall, from the date of such confirmation, constitute a lien upon the respective lots or parcels of land and other real estate upon which they are levied, superior to all other liens except those for state and county taxes.
The assessment for special improvements is a lien paramount to all other liens, state and county taxes excepted, and is a lien that would be superior to one in favor of a county for sixteenth section school funds even though the latter was prior in date to the lien for special improvements.
City of Pascagoula v. Valverde, 103 So. 198.
It is generally held that where a statute makes a local or special assessment a lien on property and is silent as to its priority the lien so created may be given priority over any and all other liens whether prior or subsequent to the assessment if such an intention can be gathered from the act, but not otherwise.
If the Legislature had not intended to make the special improvement liens superior to the city ad valorem tax it simply would have passed an act making such lien superior to all other liens save that of ad valorem taxes, but it specified: "Superior to all other liens, state and county taxes excepted."
A lien upon land for special assessments levied against it may by statute be made paramount to all other claims or liens against the property. A statutory exception of state and county liens from the priority otherwise given to an assessment lien does not, in some jurisdiction, apply to a lien in favor of a county or contract with the state other than for taxes.
The statute states that the lien for special improvements shall be superior to all other liens, state and county taxes excepted.
In this instance, both liens are created by the city and the legislature states that the special improvement lien, being a lien for which the property received benefit, is superior to the ad valorem tax.
The statute authorizes the sale on any one installment of special improvement tax and allows a period of redemption of two years for each sale, but the statute specifically says: "Such redemption shall not discharge said property from the lien of unmatured installments or assessments levied thereon, and said property shall remain subject to such lien as if no sale had been made.
Argued orally by Virgil Howie and William Fontaine, for appellant, and by W. E. Morse, for appellee.
By the bill and demurrer in this case, the question for decision here is, Does the purchaser at a city tax sale of lands for delinquent and unpaid ad valorem taxes acquire title on delivery of the deed pursuant thereto, freed from the lien of the city for unmatured and unpaid installments of assessments for special improvements?
On April 7, 1930, the city of Jackson caused to be legally sold a certain lot for ad valorem taxes thereon regularly and legally assessed, and Seward, the appellant, was the purchaser, and, after April 7, 1932, the city delivered to him deed thereto.
At the same time the same lot was sold for...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Waits v. Black Bayou Drainage Dist
...one or the other of these taxes does not displace the lien of the other. Carrier Lbr. Co. v. Quitman County, 156 Miss. 396; Seward v. City of Jackson, 165 Miss. 478; v. Panola-Quitman Dr. Dist., 168 Miss. 387; Covington v. Meletio, 168 Miss. 497; Turley v. St. Francis County, 287 S.W. 196; ......
-
Farmer v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.
... ... and Permanent Disability Benefits.--Upon receipt, at its Home ... Office, in the City of New York, of due proof that any ... employe, while insured hereunder, and prior to his sixtieth ... ...
-
Moss v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.
... ... Jegglin v. Orr, 29 S.W.2d 721 (Kansas City); ... Bonslett v. New York Life Ins. Co., 190 S.W. 870; ... Allen v. National Life & Acc. Ins ... ...
-
Farmer v. Met. Life Ins. Co.
... ... City of New York, of due proof that any employe, while insured hereunder, and prior to his sixtieth ... ...