Patterson v. Durfey

Citations

• 68 Miss. 779

Syllabus

<p>1. Tax-Title. Limitations. Three years’ possession. Code 1880, § 539.</p> <p>Under § 539, code 1880, “ 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, or in any precedent step.”</p> <p>2. Same. Date of statute. Operative effect. Applies to past sales.</p> <p>This statute was operative from the date of its enactment (November 1, 1880), and applies to tax-sales made before that time. Under it three years’ actual occupancy of land by virtue of a tax-collector’s sale bars absolutely and unqualifiedly any right of action for recovery thereof by all persons (save minors and insane persons) because of any defect in the sale, or in any precedent step.</p> <p>3. Same. Delinquency; real or apparent. Policy of statute. Repose.</p> <p>Whether the delinquency resulting in the tax-sale is real or only apparent, by the letter and spirit of the statute, in furtherance of the policy of making all lands pay taxes, actual occupancy by the purchaser for three years after the period allowed for redemption gives absolute title.</p> <p>4. Same. Land assessed to levee hoard. Irregularity ; when unavailing.</p> <p>Where land sold to the state for taxes was- afterwards purchased by one who retained actual possession for three years, in assailment of his title, it is unavailing to show that at the time of the tax-sale the land was assessed to the liquidating levee board, and was therefore not subject to sale for taxes.</p> <p>5. Same. Act o/'l 888. Commissioners’deed. Prima facie evidence.</p> <p>By § 1 of the act of 1888 (Laws p. 40) deeds of conveyance from Gwin and Hemingway, commissioners in the case of Qreen v. Gibbs, in the chancery court of Hinds county, are made prima facie evidence that the. lands embraced therein were duly sold to the board of levee commissioners. As to these