Commonwealth ex rel. Burgess & Town Council v. Mahon

Citations

• 12 Pa. Super. 616
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 284

Syllabus

<p>Contracts by insolvent lax collector — Credit of taxes in his own relief does not work payment — Public policy.</p> <p>An agreement between an insolvent tax collector and his assignee that unpaid taxes legally assessed be appropriated to the payment of the individual debts of the collector and credited to the property owner is void as against public policy, and because specially prohibited by the Act of June 8, 1885, P. L. 72.</p> <p>Uncollected taxes — Subrogation of surety — Cause of action — Interest— Proper legal plaintiff.</p> <p>The owner of seated lands who has failed to pay taxes duly assessed and levied upon such lands during his ownership is liable to be called upon, by a common-law action, to reimburse the sureties of the tax collector who have been compelled to pay them with interest from date of such enforced payment. The action should be brought in the name of the sureties as legal plaintiffs.</p> <p>Personal liability for unpaid taxes — Statute of limitations.</p> <p>The right of action at law inures to a tax collector when the warrant for collection of taxes expires, and the statute of limitations does not begin to run in favor of the owner as against this remedy until the right of action arises.</p> <p>Practice, Superior Court — Unnecessary parlies — Amendment in appellate court.</p> <p>Where legal plaintiffs are irregularly made parties, the cause of action being complete in the equitable plaintiffs, and the cause has been tried on its merits between the real parties, the appellate court will permit the record to be amended in that court.</p>