Dalton v. Lucas

Citations

• 63 Ill. 337

Syllabus

<p>1. Tax deed—color of title. When a sheriff’s deed to land under a sale for taxes is offered as claim and color of title, if the element of good faith be wanting, the party can not avail of it, even for the purpose of defending his possession.</p> <p>2. Statutory notice. The purchaser at a tax sale is presumed to know the provision of the constitution and laws requiring him to give notice of his purchase to the owner or person in whose name the land is assessed, and, failing to do so, his deed will be held to be procured in fraud of the owner’s rights.</p> <p>3. But a subsequent grantee would not be affected by the laches of a purchaser at a tax sale.</p> <p>4. Presumptive proof. The fact that no affidavit of notice can be found in the county clerk’s office, raises-a presumption that the notice was not given, and makes it the duty of a party claiming under a tax deed to prove that the notice was actually given—otherwise his claim lacks the statutory element of good faith, and can not prevail against the paramount title.</p> <p>5. Invalid tax sale—when purchaser protected. One who purchases at a tax sale, and who unites possession to payment of taxes for seven successive years under his tax deed, will be protected, even though on its face it shows that the tax sale was invalid, if there be nothing to charge the purchaser with actual bad faith. Good faith will be presumed until the contrary is made to appear.</p>