Lewis v. Seibles

Citations

• 65 Miss. 251

Syllabus

<p>1. Tax Deed. Description of land. Ambiguity. Case in judgment.</p> <p>A description of land in a tax collector’s deed by township, range, section and sub-division of section, without giving the State or county, is not ambiguous, because (as is judicially known) it is only applicable to land in the county in which the grantor was tax collector, it not appearing that such description is applicable to several tracts of land within that county.</p> <p>2. Same. Defect in description of land supplied by presumption.</p> <p>And the want of State and county in such description may be supplied by the presumption of performance of official duty by the tax collector, who can only sell, legally, land assessed and delinquent for taxes in the county of which he is tax collector.</p> <p>3. Tax Title. Ejectment. Three years’ statute of limitation. Section 539, Code of 1880, construed.</p> <p>Section 539, Code of 1880, provides that “Actual occupation for three years, after one year from the day of sale, of any land held under a conveyance by a tax collector, in pursuance of a sale for taxes, shall bar any suit to recover such land or assail such title because of any defect in the sale of such land for taxes, or in any precedent step to said sale,” etc. In an action of ejectment based upon a tax collector’s deed executed in 1875, it is not admissible for the defendant to invoke Section 539, Code of 1880, by showing three years’ adverse possession since 1880, under a tax collector’s conveyance executed in 1872, because such section is not applicable. The plaintiff’s assertion of title is not an assailment of that set up by the defendant, and the establishment of the defendant’s title does not assail that by which the plaintiff claims.</p>