Wall v. Wall

• Decision Date: 08 February 1878
• Citation: 124 Mass. 65
• Parties: Sarah E. Wall v. Caleb A. Wall
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

124 Mass. 65

Sarah E. Wall v. Caleb A. Wall

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

February 8, 1878

Argued October 4, 1877

Worcester. Writ of entry, dated March 13, 1877, to recover a parcel of land in Worcester. Plea, nul disseisin. The case was submitted to this court upon an agreed statement of facts, which, so far as material to the point decided, was as follows:

The demandant was the owner of the demanded premises on May 1 1872. The assessors of Worcester for that year assessed upon said estate a tax of $ 33.06. The tax list for 1872 was duly committed to the collector of taxes for collection. The demandant having failed to pay the tax, the collector advertised the estate for sale as follows: "City Collector's Notice. The owners and occupants of the following described parcels of real estate, situated in the city and county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, are hereby notified that the taxes thereon severally assessed for the year 1872, according to the list submitted to me as collector of taxes for said city by the assessors of taxes, remain unpaid, and that said parcels of real estate, or such undivided portions thereof as may be necessary, will be offered for sale at public auction at my office, No. 6 City Hall in said Worcester, on Friday the 20th day of February, 1874, at 10 o'clock a. m., for the payment of said taxes, together with interest thereon at 7 per cent. per annum from and after the 1st day of November 1872, and the costs and charges thereon, unless the same shall be previously discharged, viz.: [Then followed several estates, including the one in question, described as follows:] Sarah Wall, estate on the east side of Main Street bounded north by land of F. Whipple, south by land of E. P. Drury, and now or formerly owned by said Wall, containing 15,105 square feet of land, be the same more or less. Assessed, $ 33.06. Worcester, Mass., Jan. 19, 1874.

"Wm. S. Barton, treasurer and collector."

The advertisement was published in a daily newspaper in Worcester on January 19, 20, 26, 29 and 30, and on February 2, 3, 4 and 10, 1874. The entire estate of the demandant was sold by the collector to a person who subsequently conveyed it to the tenant.

Judgment was to be entered for the demandant or tenant, as the court should determine.

Judgment for the demandant.

T. L. Nelson, for the demandant.

F. T. Blackmer, for the tenant.

Morton, J. Endicott & Lord, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Morton, J.

The tenant's title is derived from a sale and conveyance of the premises by the collector of taxes of the city of Worcester. The demandant makes several objections to the validity of this sale. We are satisfied that one of these objections must prevail.

The statute requires that the collector shall give notice of the time and place of sale of real estate taken for taxes, by an advertisement to be published in a newspaper of the county in which such estate lies, and that "the advertisement shall contain a substantially accurate description of the several rights, lots or divisions of the estate to be sold the amount of the tax assessed on each, the names of all owners known to the collector, and the taxes assessed on their...