Winer v. Hooper

³²⁸ Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The record now before us brings up. for review a decree of the Circuit- Court of Baltimore City, overruling exceptions to the ratification of the sale of a fee simple lot of ground and the improvements thereon, known as Ho-. 211 H. Gay Street, Baltimore Oity, made by the appellee to the appellant, and finally ratifying and confirming the sale. The question raised by the exceptions is, can the appellee, the committee of the person and estate of Esther Mabel Young, give to the appellant, the purchaser, a good and marketable title to the lot in question sold to him ? The facts contained in the record, and upon which the claim is based, that the title of the appellee is defective, are undisputed and appear to be as follows: Mrs. Janie Young, the mother of Esther Mabel Young, on the 15th of December, 1892, bought from Lewis U. Hopkins, the then collector of taxes for the City of Baltimore, at tax sale, the property here in question, for the sum of eight hundred-and seventy - five dollars.

The tax sale was duly reported to the Circuit Court of Baltimore City and the sale being regular, and in accordance with law, it was, on the 19th day of March, 1891, ratified and confirmed by that court, no cause to the contrary having been shown, although due notice was given, as required by an order of publication, published in the cause. Mrs. Young did not receive a deed for the property from the collector who made the sale, or from any of his successors in office, and, it is conceded, there is no deed on record, from the tax collector, or any of his successors in office, to Mrs. Young for the property purchased by her at the tax sale. On the 4th of February, 1914, Mrs. Young conveyed the lot and property to her daughter, Esther Mabel Young, by deed properly executed and recorded among the land records of Baltimore Oity. In this, deed it is set out that “the said lot of ground as hereinabove described has been under enclosure and in the undisputed, continuous, -open, notorious, ³²⁹ visible and exclusive possession of the said Janie Young, since December 15th, 1892, together with the buildings and improvements thereon,” showing possession of the property bv her covering a period of more than twenty-one years.

Subsequently, on the 9th of April, 1920, Esther Mabel Young was adjudicated a. non compos mentis by the Circuit Court o£ Baltimore City, and the appellee was appointed the committee of her person and estate. The income from the estate of the non compos mentis being insufficient for her support and the payment of other necessary expenses and charges, incident to the management of the estate, the appellee obtained a decree, on the- 22nd day of April, 1920, for the sale of the lot of ground and improvements thereon, under section 121 of article 16 of the Code, and on the 19th of January, 1921, reported a private sale of the property mentioned herein to the! appellant, for the sum of $3,075, supported by the certificate of two real estate brokers, who knew the property, that the price obtained was a fair value for the property sold. The objection to the title, urged on the part of the appellant, to the property sold in this ease, it will he seen, is clearly without force and cannot he sustained. The testimony shows: first, that Mrs. Young entered into possession of the property, after the tax sale