Kann v. King

Citations

• 25 App. D.C. 182
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 5262

Syllabus

<p>Taxes; Void Assessments; Statutory Construction; Tax Sales, Reports of; Landlord and Tenant; Lease; Equity; Forfeiture, Relief against.</p> <p>1. The assessment of real estate in this District, in the name of a former owner who has been dead for twenty-five years, is a fatal irregularity which, as between the true owner and a purchaser at a tax sale or his assignee, will invalidate all subsequent proceedings, including a tax deed issued to such purchaser. (Construing act of Congress of August 14, 1894, 28 Stat. at L. 282, chap. 287.)</p> <p>2. The requirements of statutes regulating the matter of sales of real estate for nonpayment of taxes must be strictly pursued, in order to devest title from the owner.</p> <p>3. Under the act of Congress of February 28, 1898, 30 Stat. at L. 250, regulating tax sales in this District, the failure by the collector of taxes to state with certainty in the report required to be made by him to the recorder of deeds of property sold at a tax sale, the amount of taxes due on a parcel of property sold, or the cost of sale, or the amount for which it was sold, will invalidate a tax deed issued to a purchaser at such sale.</p> <p>4. A bill in equity by a lessee required by his lease to pay the taxes on the leased property, to be relieved against a forfeiture of the lease for default in paying taxes for a half year, on the ground of inadvertence and mistake, is not multifarious because it joins as a defendant with the lessor the holder of a tax certificate acquired under a sale of the property for the taxes which the lessee had failed to pay, where it appears that there was an arrangement between the defendants whereby the tax certificate was to be used to oust the lessee from the property and put the holder of the tax certificate in possession as lessee. (Following Webb v. King, 21 App. D. C. 141.)</p>