City of Orlando v. Giles

Citations

• 51 Fla. 422

Syllabus

<p>1. Chapter 5317 of the laws of 1903, has the effect of validating all assessments of taxes upon real estate in the city of Orlando liable to assessment, made by the proper officers of the city, and which the city had jurisdiction to assess for the years 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1902, and of making such assessments liens on the property assessed, and such a validation cannot be defeated by the defense that real estate was not assessed to the true owner, or that its valuation was unequal and discriminative, when it is not shown that the true owner ever applied in proper time to the City Council to have the same equalized, and when no fraud in making the assessment is shown.</p> <p>2. So far as the 18th section of Chapter 5317, laws of 1903, undertakes to validate any sale for taxes for the years 1900, 1901 and 1902,'where the assessment on which any such sale was based, was not made to the owner of the property as required by law, such attempt to validate is void and of no effect, and in a foreclosure suit by the city to recover the taxes assessed and validated, the owner is not liable for the costs of such illegal sale; but it is competent for the legislature to change the method of collecting delinquent taxes, and of imposing the costs of collection including a solicitor’s fee, and the city by proceeding under the act of the legislature thereby waives any rights it may have acquired by any previous sale for taxes under previous laws.</p> <p>3. The objection that certified copies of the assessments of unpaid taxes made by the tax collector of the city of Orlando, under section 13, Chapter 5317, and furnished the city solicitor, are vague and indefinite because not addressed to any one, or to the city solicitor, if tenable at all are not so in cases where at the bottom of such certificate on the left side, is the name “Louis C. Massey, City Solicitor.”</p>