Succession of Williams v. Chaplain

Citations

• 112 La. 1075
• 36 So. 859
• 1904 La. LEXIS 513

Syllabus

<p>ADMINISTRATION — SALE FOR TAXES — SETTING ASIDE — ASSESSMENT—DEED—NOTICE.</p> <p>1. An administrator of a succession can stand in judgment to set aside a tax suit and have the property brought back to the mass of the succession to be sold to pay debts of the succession.</p> <p>2. Assessments may be made in the name of the person, dead or alive, who appears to be the owner on the books of the conveyance office. Wolff’s Rev. St. p. 815 (Act No. 140 of 1890, p. 179, § 2).</p> <p>No notice of the death had been given to the assessor. Section 25, p. 132, Act No. 106 of 1890.</p> <p>3. The deed of sale recites that notice had been given to the tax debtor.</p> <p>No su'ch notice was given. It follows that the title is fatally defective.</p> <p>4. The property having been advertised for tax sale as owned by an owner properly present, the proceedings cannot be changed to such as are followed when a taxpayer is “unknown.”</p> <p>There was no “unknown” taxpayer within the intendment of the statute.</p> <p>5. The title of the city was not such an outstanding title as to enable defendant to champion the city’s rights.</p> <p>The city’s rights remain unchanged, and are reserved.</p> <p>6. Defendant is entitled to the taxes paid, interest, and penalty, and to reimbursement of unavoidable expenditures during the time that he had possession.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>