Perret v. Borries
Perret v. Borries
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant did pay all the taxes due on the land in controversy, but the tax collector gave her a receipt misdescribingthe property. The taxes having been actually paid, nothing was due, and the sale was illegal and void.. Section 3807 of' the code was never meant to exclude a tax receipt correct in everything save a misdescription of the land, due solely to the fault of the tax collector, if the taxes had actually been paid.
If Edmondson v. Ingram, 68 Miss., 32, would in such case exclude parol proof to show the fact of actual payment, it is hereby overruled as unsound. The case falls within Dodds v. Marx, 63 Miss., there having been there two assessments, each, of which might support a sale.
The very sum total of the taxes, $6.68, due on this indentical land was paid. She owned no other land in the county, and she actually paid the whole tax due on this land, and received from the tax collector this receipt, conforming in all respects to the requirements of § 3807, save for the misdescription. It is not to be tolerated that she should lose her estate under such circumstances. It would be a deprivation of property without due process of law. We cannot sanction a doctrine which would exclude proof by parol of the fact of payment on the land in question because of the failure of the táx receipt to describe properly the land. The statute means that such receipt is the only receipt valid in favor of the tax collector. It was never intended to take from one who had actually paid his taxes his estate for the failure of the officer to give the precise form of receipt called for by the statute.
The decree below not only confirmed the tax title to the land
Decree reversed, and decree will he entered here annulling the tax title.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Dransen Perret v. Theodore Borries
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Tax Sales. Payment of taxes. A tax sale made after the taxes have been paid is void. 2. Same. Tax receipt. Code 1892, g 3807. Parol evidence. Code 1892, 3807, prescribing a formal tax receipt and providing that “any other receipt shall not be valid as evidence,” does not exclude parol evidence to show the land actually paid on, where the same is inaccurately or wrongfully described in a statutory receipt. Edmondson v. Ingram, 68 Miss., 32, if it decide otherwise, overruled. 3. Same. Mea/ning of the statute. The statute (code 1892, $ 3807) means that the prescribed receipt' is the only valid one in favor of the tax collector, and was not designed to take the property of the taxpayer for failure of the officer to give the statutory receipt.