Pace v. Wight

Citations

• 25 N.M. 276
• 181 P. 430

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. The curative provision of section 25, c. 22, Laws 1899, relative to tax sales, does not apply to jurisdictional defects.</p> <p>P. 279</p> <p>2. The fact that property was in fact sold for delinquent taxes is jurisdictional; for, if no sale in fact occurred, the bases for the subsequent proceedings would not exist. P. 27 9</p> <p>3. The proceedings on which tax sales depend are to be proved by the records or by the originals from which the records should be made up. The fact that real estate was sold for delinquent taxes must necessarily be established by the record, and cannot be proved by the parol evidence of the county treasurer who made the sale. P. 280</p> <p>4. Section 23, c. 22, Laws 1899, requires the collector to keep a book of sales containing the date of sale, description of the property sold, name of the purchaser, and amount for which sold. Section 22 of the same act provides that, where property is struck off to the county, the collector shall make an entry, “Sold to the county,” on the tax roll opposite the tax. It is the duty of the county treasurer making the sale to record the facts in the official record, and such entry cannot be made by the successor in office of the county treasurer who made the sale, such successor having no personal knowledge of the fact recorded, and there being no memorandum from which to make the same. P. 280</p> <p>5. It is essential to the official character of official registers that the entries in them be made promptly, or at least without such long delay as to impair their credibility, and that they be made by the person whose duty it was to make them and in the mode required by law, if any has been prescribed. P. 280</p> <p>On Rehearing.</p> <p>6. The Legislature may pass a retroactive law operating on property belonging to the state, and such law will not be unconstitutional so long as private rights are not infringed.</p> <p>P. 287</p> <p>7. Where a tax sale certificate is held b