Peterson v. Kittredge

Citations

• 65 Miss. 33

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery Practice. Setting aside pro confesso decree. Presumption of this court.</p> <p>Where, upon appeal from a Chancery Court, error is predicated on the action of the Chancellor in setting aside a decree pro confesso, this court will presume, in the absence of a bill of exceptions showing the grounds upon which snch decree was vacated, that good cause was shown, and that the action of the Chancellor was correct. Bryant v. Elosenbaum, 62 Miss. 191, cited.</p> <p>2. Tax Title. Confirmation. Evidence. Practice.</p> <p>A complainant seeking, as against all persons, confirmation of a tax title, cannot avail of the defective title set up by a defendant, if he fail to show a good title in himself. Meeks v. Whatley, 48 Miss. 337, cited.</p> <p>3. Tax Sale. Excessive levy. Jail and bridge tax. Constitutional provision.</p> <p>A sale of land in 1876 for the taxes of 1875, under a levy for county purposes, which, including the taxes for jail and bridges, exceeded the limit fixed for such levy by an Act of the Legislature passed in 1875, is void. The taxes for jail and bridges, together with all the other county taxes not specially provided for, should have come within the restriction imposed by the act referred to, notwithstanding the provision of § 16, article 12, of the Constitntion, that “no county shall be denied the right to raise, by special tax, money sufficient to pay for the building and repairing of court-houses, jails, and bridges, and other necessary conveniences for the people of the county.” Beck v. Allen, 53 Miss. 143, cited. Campbell, X, dissented.</p> <p>4. Same. Effect of this corn-t overruling fanner decisions. Constitutional Law.</p> <p>And the purchaser at such sale cannot defend his title by invoking decisions of this court in force at the time of the sale and of his purchase, and which, if still law, would protect his title, they having been since overruled. A sale for taxes is a proceeding in invitum, as to the owner of the land sold, and the