Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co. v. Ligon
Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co. v. Ligon
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The sale of the land in question occurred in 1881, and is governed by the provisions of the Code of 1880 in reference to sales for taxes, but the assessmentwas made in 1879, and its validity must be deter
Under § 526 of the Code of 1880, a tax collector’s deed is primé faoie evidence that everything essential to the collector’s power to sell existed at the time of the sale, and that everything was done necessary to constitute a valid sale, an'd the burden of proof is upon the party who attempts to impeach such deed to show its invalidity. Virden v. Bowers, 55 Miss. 1 ; Bell v. Gordon, Ib. 45 ; Clymer v. Cameron, Ib. 593 ; Griffin v. Dogan, 48 Miss. 11; Green v. Williams, 58 Miss. 752; Hardie v. Chrisman, 60 Miss. 671.
Wolfe v. Murphy, 60 Miss. 1, in which the assessment of the lands of Hinds County for the year 1879 was involved, is decisive against most of the objections made to the assessment in this case. After the assessment roll was filed, examined, and approved by the board of supervisors and the county tax levied, they ordered their clerk to make, certify, and deliver copies of the same to the sheriff and tax collector of the county. It was the duty of the clerk to do this, and it cannot be assumed, in the absence of proof, that he failed to do so. It seems that the clerk’s certificate to the copy of the land roll was defective, and it may be that the assessor did not fully comply with the statute in regard to the affidavit required to be appended by him to the roll •, but such irregularities, under our constitution and statutes, do not vitiate the assessment so as to render a sale made under it void. Chesnut v. Elliott, 61 Miss. 569.
The proof shows that the sale was made at Raymond, where it should have been made.
After the sale the deed should have been filed in the office of the chancery clerk at Jackson, in the district in which the land was situate (Acts 1871, 759), and this should have been done under § 531 of the Code of 1880 on or before the 1st of April, 1881. It appears from the testimony that it was filed with the chancery clerk at Jackson, but not when it was so filed. Without further ¡proof on the subject, it must be presumed that the sheriff and tax collector performed his duty, and that the deed was filed by him ^within the time prescribed by law. Corburn v. Crittenden, ante 125.
Affirmed.
Reference
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- Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company v. B. T. Ligon
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- Syllabus
- 1. Tax Deed. Filing of in clerk’s office. Presumption thereof. The presumptions in favor of the validity of a tax-sale, arising under the Code of 1880, from the tax collector’s deed to an individual purchaser, extend to and include the presumption, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the collector filed the deed in the office of the clerk of the chancery court within the time prescribed by law. 2. Same. Presumption thereon as to delivery of assessment roll to eollector. It is also presumed in favor of a tax collector’s deed, in the absence of proof, that the clerk of the board of supervisors performed his duty in delivering a copy of the assessment roll upon which the tax-sale is based to the tax collector after the same had been examined and approved, as directed by the board and as required by law. 3. Tax Assessment. Defective affidavit of assessor or certificate of clerk. Effect as to tax sales. The failure of the assessor to append to an assessment roll of land the affidavit required by the revenue act of 1878, and the making of a defective certificate to the copy of such roll delivered to the tax collector by the clerk of the board of supervisors, are irregularities which do not vitiate the assessment and render sales under it void. Chestnut v. Elliott, 61 Miss. 569, cited. 4. Tax-Deed. For land in first district, Hinds County. Where to he filed. Although Raymond, in the second district, was the proper place (in 1881)'for the sale of all lands in Hinds County delinquent for taxes, yet, under an act of the legislature approved July 30, 1871, deeds to individual purchasers at such sales, for land situated in the first district of the county, were required to be filed in the office of the chancery clerk at Jackson, in the first district.