Westerfield v. Merchant
| Decision Date | 09 November 1908 |
| Citation | 93 Miss. 791,47 So. 434 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | WILLIAM E. WESTERFIELD v. ADA MERCHANT ET AL |
October 1908
FROM the chancery court of Scott county, HON. JAMES L. MCCASKILL Chancellor.
Miss Merchant and others, appellees, were complainants in the court below; Westerfield, appellee, was defendant there. From a decree in complainants' favor defendant appealed to the supreme court. The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Judgment affirmed.
O. R Singleton, for appellant.
The statute only gives the right to redeem to the owner, or one acting for the owner. Of course if a stranger to the title applies to the chancery clerk to redeem land sold for taxes the clerk has no right to inquire whether he be the owner or not, he having no way of ascertaining, and the redemption would enure to the benefit of the owner, but after the two years has expired and the deed delivered to the purchaser by the chancery clerk and has been recorded in the deed records a different rule should govern the redemption.
Appellees elected to file a bill in the chancery court to redeem land which they claimed to be the owner of; but failed to show title and admitted that there was an outstanding paramount title to said land.
They should not be allowed to redeem unless they show title, the saving to the infant is to redeem his land, not the land of some one else. Wilson v. Sykes, 57 Miss. 617, 7 So. 492.
McIntosh Brothers, for appellees.
There is no question under the law of this state but that Mrs. Merchant could have, within two years after the sale was made, redeemed this land without exhibiting a perfect record title. Nor, can it be said that she could make a redemption within the two years period without proving her ownership, but that her infant children who inherited this land together with every benefit, right and incident thereto, shall be hindered with the disadvantage of being required to exhibit to a court of equity, their record title before they will be permitted to make this redemption.
All of the requirements in regard to the assessment, advertisement and sale of land for taxes, require that the land should be assessed to the owner, should be advertised and sold in the name of the owner, which in this case was done, as will be shown by the tax collector's deed to the defendant.
It is not competent for complainants to draw into controversy the validity of the title of the redemptionist, nor can he defeat the...
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