Day v. Smith

Citations

• 87 Miss. 395
• 39 So. 526

Syllabus

<p>1. Judicial Notice. Historical facts.</p> <p>Courts take judicial notice of the fact that the country was in a state of actual war in 1861, and that Mississippi then had a de facto state government, with de facto officers, necessarily compelled to execute the mandates of the government then in power.</p> <p>2. Taxation. Illegality. Confederate taxes.</p> <p>Taxes levied in support of the confederate state government by the state of Mississippi for the years 1861 and 1862, although illegal, were levied by a de facto government, and cannot be treated as never having been paid, because of such illegality, in support of a sale of land for taxes, requiring a payment by the purchaser of the taxes for such years.</p> <p>3. Same. Code 1857.</p> <p>Under Code 1857, art. 39, p. 80 (16., art. 43, p. 82), where lands were sold for taxes and struck off to an individual, he did not receive a deed for two years, and not then without paying the taxes of the intervening years; hence where land was sold for the taxes of 1860, the deed to which was delivered to the purchaser in May, 1863, upon payment of the taxes of 1861 and 1862, including war taxes, the purchaser did not acquire title, because a part of the taxes paid by him were levied in aid of the confederate states.</p> <p>4. Same. Evidence. Official acts. Presumptions.</p> <p>Where a purchaser of land sold for the taxes of 1860 obtained his deed therefor, it will be presumed on demurrer, in the absence of a charge to the contrary, that the clerk collected and the purchaser paid the void taxes of 1861 and 1862, assessed by the state largely for the benefit of the confederacy, since the clerk was required to do so by statute. Code 1857, arts. 39, 43, pp. 80, 83.</p>