In re Safe Deposit & Trust Co.

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Baltimore, as trustee under the will of Richard Swann, deceased, sold a tract of thirty acres of land in Anne Arundel County for the sum of seven hundred dollars, and the sale was duly reported to the Circuit Court for that county, whose jurisdiction over the trust had been previously invoked. Exceptions were filed by the purchaser to the ratification of the sale. The main ground of objection is that the title proposed to be conveyed is not good and marketable.

This contention was sustained by the Court below, and from its order setting aside the sale an appeal has been taken by the trustee. ⁵²¹ The title of the Trust Company was obtained by its purchase of the property under foreclosure of a mortgage which it held for the benefit of the trust estate and which had been executed by John Henry Johnson and wife on April 15, 1911, to secure a loan of seven hundred dollars. It was recited in the mortgage that the tract had been conveyed to Johnson by deed from B. Allein AYelch, treasurer of Anne Arundel County, dated May 19, 1905, and duly recorded. The tax sale proceedings which resulted in the conveyance last mentioned include a report by the treasurer to the Circuit Court showing that the land was sold on December 30, 1902, to John Henry Johnson for thirty-five dollars in the enforcement of claims for taxes in arrears for 1899 and 1900, amounting, with interest and costs, to $30.01. It appears from the tax bills exhibited with the report that the property was assessed at $101.00 for the purposes of taxation.

It is in evidence that the land formerly belonged to Margaret Anna Johnson, a widow, who died intestate some years prior to the sale, leaving eight children as her heirs at law. The property was thereafter entered on the assessment record, and the tax bills referred to were made out, in the name of “Margaret Anna Johnson Heirs.” One of the persons included in this designation was John Henry Johnson. AYhen the sale occurred he was in sole possession of the premises. The evidence shows that some of the other co-tenants were residing in the same neighborhood, but there are some whose places of residence at that time are not proven.

The notices required by law to be given before the property could be sold for taxes were served upon “John Henry Johnson, one of the heirs of Mary A. Johnson, deceased,” and, as already stated, he became the purchaser. The objection to the title is based primarily upon the ground that the notice served upon only one of the co-tenants, even though he was then in possession, was not sufficient to gratify the terms of the statute prescribing the notices to be given as pre-requisites to a valid sale. ⁵²² It is provided by section 229 of Article 2 of the Code of Public Local Laws, relating to Anne Arundel County, that it shall be the duty of the treasurer, during the month of March succeeding each levy, to make out all tax bills which have not been paid, with a notice in each that if it remains unpaid on the first day of June next after its date, the property will be levied upon and sold to enforce payment, and that a copy of each bill so prepared shall be delivered by a constable of the district “to the person or corporate institution against whom it is made out; or in the event of failure to find such person or taxpayer in the district, such tax bill shall be left with the agent of such person or institution, or conspicuously posted on the property assessed.” The treasurer is directed by section 230 to enforce the payment of all taxes remaining unpaid on the first day of June succeeding the year in which they were imposed, but it is enacted that when property is levied upon for that purpose, “notice thereof-together with a copy of the bill of taxes due * * * shall be delivered to the owner, if he be in possession of the property, or at his residence, if it be within 'the same district, or mailed to him if his postoffice address be known, and if not, then to be conspicuously posted on the premises, together with a notice that if the said bill for taxes, interest and costs, be not paid within thirty days, the property levied upon will be sold at public sale.” Provision is made by section 231 for a report of the sale to the Circuit Court by the treasurer, and for its ratification if the proceedings are regular and there has been a substantial compliance with the statute. In view of these provisions, and of the facts we have stated, the question to be decided is whether