State ex rel. Gibbes v. Morrison

Citations

• 44 S.C. 470
• 22 S.E. 605
• 1895 S.C. LEXIS 103

Syllabus

<p>1. Tax Sales — Purciiaser-j-Possession.—The sheriff having advertised and sold for unpaid taxes a tract of land by proper metes and bounds, but describing it as located in the wrong parish, and containing 400 acres, when the real quantity was 480, and having made and delivered deed to the purchaser, is not relieved of the duty of putting the purchaser into possession, under the plain mandate of the statute law, by reason of these errors of location and quantity, it being admitted that it was the same land, nor by the fact that he subsequently advertised the same land for resale, correcting the former misdescription, the resale not having been made because then claimed by a third person. Any person so desiring, could have prevented a sale of this land for the alleged unpaid taxes by complying with the provisions of section 3 of the act of 1887 (19 Stat., 862,) and amendatory acts; but not having done so, and the sheriff having sold and made deed, it was his duly to put the purchaser into possession.</p> <p>2. Supreme Court — Issues of Pact Referred.. — This court, wanting further information as to the facts, remanded the case to the Circuit Court for the ascertainment of two issues of fact. These issues were referred by order of the Circuit Court to a referee, and his findings were confirmed by that court and certified to this court, and thus became a part of the appeal record.</p> <p>3. Abandoned Lands — Tax Sales — Purchaser—Possession.—Under the act of 1889 (20 Stat., 347), lands not upon the tax books and the ownership unknown, were properly placed upon the tax duplicate in the name of “unknown,” charged with the prescribed past years’ taxes and penalties, and levied and sold. The sheriff having made deed to the purchaser, should have put him into possession, and disregarded the claim of a third person, who returned this land for taxation in his own name after such levy and sale by the sheriff.</p> <p>4. Tax Sale — Purchaser—Limitation of Action — Mandamus.—Th