McAlpine, Polk & Co. v. Zitzer

Citations

• 119 Ill. 273

Syllabus

<p>1. Tax title—acquired by the owner—treated as a payment of taxes, only. Where the owner lets his land be sold for taxes, and buys it in at the tax sale, he does not thereby get any independent title, but the transaction will be treated as but a payment of the taxes.</p> <p>2. Same—tax title obtained by a third person by collusion with the owner, to defeat a mortgage. Where a mortgagor, by fraud and collusion with another, suffers the premises to be sold for taxes, and procures such third person to purchase the same to defeat the mortgage, the tax title will be treated the same as if the mortgagor were the purchaser, and held subject to the mortgage.</p> <p>3. Same—service of notice upon tenants in possession, as to expiration of time of redemption. Where the holder of a certificate of purchase at a tax sale fails to serve the requisite notice of the purchase, and of the time when the redemption will expire, on a tenant in the occupancy of a building upon the premises, he will acquire no title, notwithstanding he may have made affidavit that he had served such notice on all persons in possession.</p> <p>4. Remedy—to question the validity of tax title set up to defeat a foreclosure—whether at law or in equity. On bill to foreclose a mortgage, the validity of a tax title held by a third party, not acquired by collusion with the mortgagor, will not be passed upon and determined in that suit, but will be left to be adjudicated in an action at law. But if the tax title has been obtained by such collusion, it will be in subordination to the mortgage, and the question of its validity may be passed upon in the suit to foreclose, and the title made subject to the mortgage in the decree of foreclosure.</p>