George v. Cole

Citations

• 109 La. 816
• 33 So. 784
• 1902 La. LEXIS 165

Syllabus

<p>TAXATION — DELINQUENT TAXES — FORFEITURE TO STATE —■ VALIDITY — CONVEYANCE OF TITLE — ADVERSE POSSESSION — ASSESSMENTS — SALE.</p> <p>1. Act No. 42 of 1871, required that a list of lands upon which taxes were unpaid, with the names of the owners, should be recorded in the offices of the parish recorder and state auditor, and that the forfeiture of said property should result from the filing of such list in the latter office; and Act No. 96 of 1877, which provided for the forfeiture of property which had been sold for unpaid taxes, upon the filing, in the office of the parish recorder, of a list describing such property and giving the names of the owners, cannot be so applied as to operate the forfeiture of property, where no other steps were taken than to record, in the office of the parish recorder, the list contemplated by the act of 1871.</p> <p>2. Forfeitures and adjudications to the state, based on assessments and proceedings claimed to have been made and conducted under Acts No. 42 of 1871, No. 47 of 1873, or No. 96 of 1877, but made and conducted in the name of a deceased person, were void, and conveyed no title.</p> <p>3. The state, having acquired no title, could convey none, and the sale by it, under Act No. 107 of 1880, of property, claimed to have been so forfeited and adjudicated, conveyed no title to the purchaser.</p> <p>4. Neither the prescription of five nor three years bars the action of the owner to recover property, adverse title to which is claimed under conveyances from the state, based on allesred forfeitures or adjudications, which were void by reason of radical nullities, such as are here found to have existed.</p> <p>5. Possession of part of a tract of land, divided by imaginary lines only, with title to part and usufruct of the rest, carries with it possession of the whole.</p> <p>6. The prescription of 10 years, acquirendi causa, to be effective, must be supported, at least in the beginning, by corporeal possession. Mere paper title, w