Taylor v. Forrest

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The plaintiff brought an action of ejectment against the defendant in the Superior Court of Baltimore City to recover the reversion in a certain lot of ground, situate at the southeast corner of Trinity and Exeter streets, in the city of Baltimore. The case was tried before the Court, without the intervention of a jury, upon an agreed statement of facts, which is fully set out in the record. The judgment being in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff has appealed.

The title of the defendant rests upon a tax sale of the property in question, dated the 17th day of December, 1895, and made by Lewis N. Hopkins, Collector of Taxes for Baltimore City for the years 1893 and 1894. The property was purchased by Wm. E. Croswell, the predecessor in title of the defendant. The plaintiff’s title is derived as devisee of one Margaret J. Keys, who died on the 28th of December, 1900, and by her will duly admitted to probate devised the lot of ground and the ground rent issuing thereout to her sister, the appellant.

The plaintiff’s title appears to be good and sufficient if the defendant derived no title to the property under the tax sale. The questions of law are presented for our consideration on the rulings of the Court on the prayers, and the controversy relates to the regularity and validity of the proceedings, under the tax sale. •The sale of the property, through which the defendant claims title was made on the 17th of December, 1895, by Lewis N. ⁵³¹ Hopkins, Collector, for the non-payment of State and city taxes, amounting to sixty-eight dollars and fifty cents, due and in arrear, for the years 1893 and 1894, by one Mary A. Forrest. The property was assessed at $ 1 ,goQ in the name of Mary A. Forrest, who at the date of the sale held only a life estate, but it was sold by the collector in fee-simple to the purchaser for the sum of $135. The sale was on the 29th of December, 1896, reported to the Circuit Court of Baltimore City by John F. Parlett, the then collector, and the successor of Mr. Hopkins, and was subsequently on the 14th day of April, 1897, ratified and confirmed by the Court.

Now, the effect of an order of ratification by the Court is sitnply to establish a prima facie case ; the regularity of the proceedings under the sale and the title of the purchaser derived from the sale, can be attacked, if the collector has failed to comply with the law. The collector’s power to sell property for taxes is conferred by statute and the law is well settled that in order to render a sale valid there must be a substantial compliance with the essential requirements of the law from which this power is derived. The statute provides, sec. 52 of Art. 81 of the Code of Public General Laws, and sec. 832 of Art. 4 of the Code of Public Local Laws of Baltimore City, that in all cases where lands are held in fee-simple, &c., have been sold, or shall be sold for payment of taxes in arrears according to the provisions of existing laws, it shall be the duty of the Collector of Taxes to report the sale, together with all the proceedings had in relation thereto, to the Circuit Court of the county where said lands are situate or when lands are situate in Baltimore City to the Circuit Court of the city. It is further provided, the Court to which such report shall be made shall examine the proceedings and if the same appear to be regular and the provisions of law in relation thereto have been complied with and if after the notice required by the statute has been given, and no cause to the contrary has been shown, the sale shall, by order of Court, be ratified and confirmed, and on the payment of the purchase-money, the purchaser ⁵³² shall have a good title to the property sold.

Balto. City Code (1892), Art. 50.- It is obvious then from an examination of the statute applicable to this case that the report of sale and the proceedings had in relation thereto by the collector who made the sale are essential requirements of the statute; and being conditions subsequent to the sale, prescribed by the statute, no title will pass to the purchaser, where the collector fails to perform this duty. . The manifest object and policy of the law in requiring a report of the sale and the collector’s proceedings is to enable the owner to ascertain the fact of sale, and to protect his interest by contesting the validity of the sale or by a redemption of the property within the period allowed by law. The