Gage v. Mayer

Citations

• 117 Ill. 632
• 7 N.E. 97

Syllabus

<p>1. Tax title—stricti juris. The validity of a tax title depends upon a strict compliance with the statute.</p> <p>2. Same—notice, and affidavit thereof—to authorize the malting of a tax deed. Under section 216 of the Revenue act, the right of a holder of a certificate of purchase at a tax sale, to a deed for the property sold, rests entirely upon the sufficiency of the affidavit filed with the county clerk, to show a proper service of notice of the purchase, and when the time of redemption will expire. Parol evidence can not be received to supply defects or omissions in the affidavit.</p> <p>3. The statute only authorizes a deed to be executed upon a purchase at tax sale, upon an affidavit being filed which contains certain specified facts, and if it fails to contain such facts, the deed is unauthorized and nugatory, regardless of what the real facts may be, or what may be proved.</p> <p>4. ’ tyi this case, an affidavit made by an agent of a purchaser at a tax sale, in August, 1877, that he visited the lot on December 6, 1878, to serve the occupant with a notice of the sale, etc., and there was no person in possession of the same, but the property was vacant and unoccupied, that it was taxed in the name of W. H. Rice and I. Mayer, and he served a notice, of which the annexed was a true copy, on W. H. Rice and I. Mayer, by handing the same to and leaving the same with W. H. Rice, personalty, at No. 188 Washington street, and Z. Mayer, personalty, at Howland block, Chicago, in said county, both on March 19, 1879: Held, that the affidavit failed to show service of notice on I. Mayer, one of the persons in whose name the lot was taxed, and that the deed issued thereon was void.</p> <p>5. Chancery—setting aside tax deed as a cloud upon title—upon what terms. On bill to set aside a tax deed for a lot bought in 1877, in computing the amount the complainant should pay the defendant, the court included amounts the defendant had paid for jther and prior tax sales, under wh