Paris v. Lewis

Citations

• 85 Ill. 597

Syllabus

<p>1. Payment of taxes—appointment of agent to pay taxes may be by parol. An agent for the payment of taxes may be appointed by parol. A request by letter or orally is sufficient to authorize the person requested to act, and a payment of taxes made pursuant to such request would be a payment by the person making the request.</p> <p>2. Same—presumption as to agency of person paying taxes on land of another. It is not indispensable that an express request to act should be proved, but it may be inferred from circumstances; as, for instance, when the proof shows the payment of taxes by a person not claiming any interest in the land, and his subsequent compensation therefor by the owner, the presumption is the payment was made for the owner, and that the person was his agent in making it.</p> <p>3. Same—abbreviations in tax receipts. The courts will take notice, without proof, of the meaning of initials usually used in the description of land in tax receipts, such as “ W for “ west half,” “N W” for “northwest quarter,” “T 37 N,” for “ township thirty-seven north,” etc.</p> <p>4. Tax receipts—defective description of land. Where the description of land in a tax receipt is clearly defective, the objection may' be overcome by parol evidence which shows with reasonable certainty that the payment for which the receipt was given was in fact made on the land in controversy.</p> <p>5. Good faith. Where a party has paid the taxes on land, to which he has claim and color of title acquired in good faith, for seven successive years, and such title subsequently passes into one who acquires it in bad faith, and afterwards passes to another who acquires it in good faith, and without any notice of the bad faith of the prior owner, such bad faith can not relate back to and affect the title and payment of taxes of the first owner, nor preclude the last owner in good faith from relying upon the title vested in the first owner and transmitted to him, although coming through one claiming in