Brown v. Castellaw

Citations

• 33 Fla. 204

Syllabus

<p>1. In an action of ejectment where both jdaintiff and defendant rely upon tax deeds made by statute prima facie evidence of the regularity of the proceedings from the valuation of the land by the assessor to the date of the deed inclusive and of title in the purchaser, the holder of the subsequent deed, in the absence of any showing successfully impeaching it, exhibits a superior right to recovery.</p> <p>2. To maintain the action plaintiff introduced a tax deed issued to her, and made by statute prima facie evidence of the regularity of the proceedings from the valuation of the land by the assessor to the date of the deed inclusive and of title in the purchaser, said deed reciting that the land was assessed to H. F. and J. W. Lucas, and was based upon a sale for the non-payment of taxes assessed for the year 1877. To impeach plaintiff’s deed, defendant offered a prior tax deed to J. G. Greeley, also made by statute prima facie evidence of the regularity of the proceedings from the valuation of the land by the assessor to the date of the deed inclusive and of title in the purchaser. On objection by plaintiff this deed was excluded by the court. Defendant then gave evidence that H. F. and J. W. Lucas did not occupy the land embraced in plaintiff’s tax deed during the year 1877, and again offered the tax deed to Greeley in evidence, and the court again ruled it out: Held, That the exclusion of the deed when first offered was not error, as there was nothing then before the court to show that as a matter of fact the Lucases did not occupy the land m 1877, or that it was not properly assessed for that year; Held further, that although, as a general rule, recitals in tax deeds, in the absence of statutory regulations, are not evidence of the facts therein recited as against the land-owner, yet where a party accepts a tax deed with a recital in it that the land was assessed to a certain individual during a named year, and introduces such deed as evidence of his right to