Scott v. Mayor of Jersey City
Scott v. Mayor of Jersey City
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
At a tax sale made by virtue of “An act concerning the settlement and collection of arrearages of unpaid taxes,” &e., passed March 30th, 1886, and the supplements
The facts are not disputed, and those pertinent to the issue were agreed to by a written stipulation of the parties, from winch it appeal’s “That at the time of the sale by the city collector of Jersey City, at which sale the defendant purchased the promises in question, the records of the Hudson county register’s office disclosed the fact that Henry Abell was the last known owner. That the record of the conveyance by which the said Henry Aboil obtained title to the premises shows that he lived in Yonkers, Yew York; that a notice to redeem said premises from the tax sale was published and mailed to the said Henry Abell in the manner provided by law; .that at the time of such tax sale the said Henry Abell was dead, having died in 1873, in the city of Yew York, leaving as his only heir-at-law Harriet Augusta Evans, who was alive at the time of the said tax sale; that plaintiff paid two hundred ($200) dollars for a deed from the devisees of Harriet Augusta Evans, vesting in the plaintiff whatever right or title she had to the premises in question at the time of the tax sale in 1898.”
The action was brought by the plaintiff in the First District Court of Jersey City to recover damages for an alleged breach of the covenants of seizin, and right to convey contained in the deed to him from the defendant, and the action is sought to he sustained upon the ground that the notice to redeem should have been given to the daughter or her devisees, as actual owners, although Hie title stood on the record in the name of Henry Abell. There was a judgment for the defendant from which plaintiff appeals.
Section 6 of the act under consideration provides that any person having an estate in any lands sold in pursuance of its fourth section, whose estate appears of record in the county, may, at any time before the expiration of six months, after
But it is urged that the act of 1892, just referred to, was repealed by a supplement to the “Martin act,” approved March 16th, 1893 (Gen. Stat., p. 3388), the argument of the appellant being that if the act oE 1893 has any validity it must mean that parties whose interest have not been properly foreclosed, or who have not received notice, shall be entitled to come in and redeem. The difficulty with the first part of this proposition is that the interest of the heirs of Abell were properly foreclosed, and the objection to the second proposition is that the heirs of Abell did receive all the notice which the law provided for, but the act of 1893 does not apply to this case. What the act provides for is that where a person who is entitled thereto has not had the notice which the law requires he should have, because of inadvertence, or for some other reason, the purchaser may subsequently correct such error by giving the notice which the law requires, and upon proof thereof, and that no redemption has been tendered or made, the officer, whose duty it is to make a deed under the act, shall execute a supplemental deed without requiring a resale of the lands.
Whether section 2 of the supplement of April 8th, 1892 (Gen, Stat., p. 3387), was repealed by the supplement of 1893, it is not necessary to determine, because the question of limitation does not, in my judgment, arise under the circumstances of this case. The city bought the property at a tax sale, and it is assumed from the stipulation that all the notices and other requirements of the act relating to redemption were complied with, and the only question is whether the notice to Abell, he being dead at the time of the sale, foreclosed the right of redemption of his heirs or devisees. I think the statute is very clear on this subject, and that the deed which
The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ARTHUR SCOTT v. MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF JERSEY CITY
- Status
- Published