Clapp v. Township of Pinegrove

Citations

• 138 Pa. 35
• 20 A. 836
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 1234

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. The exception in § 1, act of April 21, 1856, P. L. 477, providing that the rule, caveat emptor, shall not apply to tax-sales in cases of double assessment, or where the taxes on which the sale is made have been previously paid, or where the lands do not lie in the county, was perhaps unnecessary; the purchaser, in such cases, might recover back his money independent oí it: Per Mr. Justice Williams.</p> <p>2. When land, which has been doubly assessed, and the taxes thereon regularly paid upon a proper assessment in the name oí the owners, is sold by the county treasurer for county and township taxes levied upon another and erroneous assessment, such sale is void, and the purchaser may recover from the township so much of the money paid by him as was collected for and received by it.</p> <p>3. The statute of limitations runs against such right of action from the time the money was paid, though the purchaser was then ignorant of the facts; and an offer to prove that the township assessors and the county commissioners “were notified that the assessment was erroneous ” before the sale, is insufficient to show such fraud or concealment of facts as will toll the statute.</p> <p>4. The same principles apply to a payment by such a purchaser to the county treasurer, in redemption of the land from a subsequent sale upon a like erroneous assessment; and such a payment, in ignorance of the facts, may be recovered back by actions against the county and township, although made, by permission of the county commissioners, after the statutory period for redemption had expired.</p>