Butts v. Ricks

Mississippi Supreme Court March 15, 1903

Butts v. Ricks, 82 Miss. 533 (Miss. 1903)

Price

Opinion of the Court

Price, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

There was a valid existing assessment on the land under the *538act of 1888 (Laws 1888, p. 463, c. 378), and an unconstitutional and void act of the legislature could not work a legislative abandonment. The land was owned by private individuals, and subject to taxation. The taxes were not paid on the land, and in 1900 the tax collector advertised and sold the land for unpaid taxes of 1899, and executed to the purchaser a conveyance in pursuance of such sale for taxes. The purchaser at the tax sale after two years — the time allowed for redemption— went into actual possession of the land, and he, or those holding under him, have since occupied it. Under section 2735, Code 1892, such a title, with such holding, stands as a bar to appellant’s right of recovery. Actual possession of a portion of the land under the facts and the calls of the deed was possession of the whole tract.

Affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name: Edward S. Butts v. Frances J. Ricks
Cited By: 3 cases
Status: Published
Syllabus: 1. Taxation. Assessment. Unconstitutional act of legislature. Abandonment. An existing valid assessment of land is not affected by the passage of an unconstitutional and void act of the legislature purporting to provide for a new assessment, and cannot be said to have been abandoned. 2. Tax Title. Statute of limitations. Code 1892, §2635. Where the purchaser of land at a tax sale went into the actual possession of the land after the expiration of the time allowed for redemption, and remained in such possession for three years, claiming under his tax deed, a suit to recover the land because of defects in the tax sale or any step leading to the sale is barred, under Code 1892, § 2735, so providing. 3. Same. Possession of'part extended to whole tract. Namigable stream. The fact that a body of land is divided by a navigable stream and the part actually occupied lies entirely on one side of the same will not of itself prevent the application.of the doctrine that the actual occupation of a part of a tract by one, claiming under a deed, will be referred to all the lands conveyed by the deed.