Polk v. Rose ex rel. Cinnamond

Goldsborough, J., delivered the opinion of this Court: The appellees, the complainants' below, filed their bill of complaint against the appellant in the Circuit Court for Baltimore city, alleging that they were the owners of certain houses and lots on the north side of Columbia street, in said city, and being seized and possessed thereof, the appellant set up a claim to said lots under an alleged title by a tax deed from Augustus M. Brice, the collector of taxes for the State and city, and that the appellant, by virtue of Ms pretended title, was not only interfering with the appellees right of property by requiring their tenants to pay the rents of the property to him, but that his conduct operated to cast a cloud upon their title. The appellees further allege that they obtained their title to said houses and lots by deed from George R. Cinnamond* trustee, under a decree of the Circuit Court for Baltimore city, by which decree Cinnamo-nd was authorized to sell the above property as the property of one Adam J. List. They further allege and charge that the -sale for taxes under which the appellant claims title, is utterly void under the laws of this State, and after assigning the reasons for this allegation, pray for an injunction for the purposes therein stated and for general relief. Injunction was issued as prayed.

The appellant subsequently filed his answer, denying most of the allegations of the bill, but admitting that the appellees obtained a deed from Cinnamon d, trustee, as stated in the bill, but that the sale made by him to the appellees* was not made until seven months after the appellant had purchased from the city collector. ¹⁵⁹ A motion was made on the filing of the answer for a dissolution of the injunction, but the Court continued it until final hearing. Commission was issued at the instance of the? appellees to take testimony, which being taken by them, (the-appellant declining to take any,) and the commission returned,, the cause was set do»& for final hearing, and being heard,» the Circuit Court on the 21st day of December, 1864, passed a final decree making the injunction perpetual, and further-decreed that the de-iidlfrom Price to the appellant “be declared utterly null and void, so far as it covers or affects the lot? belonging to the complainants mentioned in the proceedings.” In the review of the merits of this case, we propose to examine the claim and pretentions of the appellant. He relies on his title derived through the deed from the collector;- and it becomes imprtant to ascertain what are the requisitions of the law to make such a title valid. To sustain the' power of the collector which is a specially delegated one and must he strictly pursued, see 10 G. & J., 374 , 11 G. & J., 56 . 7 H. & J., 79 .

A series of the acts preliminary in their character, are required by law to precede the execution of the power. Each and every step, from the-assessment of the property for taxation, to the consummation ©f the title by delivery of the deed to the purchaser, ia a separate and independent fact. All of these facts from the beginning to the end of the proceeding must exist, and if any material link in the chain of title is wanting, the whole is defective for want of sufficient authority to support it. • The party claiming under the power is chargeable withnotice of every irregularity in the proceedings of the officers, and the- onus is upon him to show the faithful execution of the power.. This requisition is especially applicable to the purchaser at a tax sale.

There is no hardship in,this. At such sales itt is notorious that the amount paid by purchasers is uniformly trifling in comparison with the value of the property sold»!— ¹⁶⁰ See Blackwell on Tax Titles, 65. While the maxim of law '•'■omnia rite jprcesiimuiUv.r is appropriate only to judicial proceedings, no intendment in respect to the exercise of it is to be made in favor of a specially delegated power; so that every act, the performance of which is made a condition precedent to the validity of the acts of a special agent, whether appointed for a public or private purpose, must be be shown by proof. The omis is upon the purchaser at a tax sale, he must establish affirmatively that the officers acted strictly in conformity with the law.

The acts of the officers are matters in pais; their existence is not made out by intendment but must be proved. Tested by this exposition of the law, has the appellant offered any evidence of the validity of his tax title ? He took none under the commission. He.cannot rely