Bensalem Township School District v. Bucks County Tax Claim Bureau

15 Pa. D. & C.3d 569, 1980 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 381
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County
DecidedJanuary 2, 1980
Docketno. 77-5620-05-1
StatusPublished

This text of 15 Pa. D. & C.3d 569 (Bensalem Township School District v. Bucks County Tax Claim Bureau) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bensalem Township School District v. Bucks County Tax Claim Bureau, 15 Pa. D. & C.3d 569, 1980 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 381 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1980).

Opinion

GARB, J.,

— We decide this matter based upon a stipulation of facts as in the nature of a case stated. This is an action in assumpsit in which the question for disposition is whether the Bucks County Tax Claim Bureau may claim and retain its statutory commissions on delinquent taxes collected by the school district as a result of actions in assumpsit instituted and successfully prosecuted by the school district against the delinquent taxpayers.

The agreed upon facts establish that plaintiff is a municipal corporation in a school district of the second class while defendant is a statutory agency of the County of Bucks created under and pursuant to the authority of the Real Estate Tax Sale Law of July 7, 1947, RL. 1368, art. I, sec. 101 et seq., 72 P.S. §5860.101 et seq. During the years 1974 and 1975 the Board of Directors of the Bensalem Township School District levied real estate taxes against a number of specified properties identified in the stipulation of facts by the property owner and tax parcel numbers. Tax bills for the aforesaid tax assessments were sent by the tax collector for the school district during the years 1974 and 1975 to each of those enumerated property owners but each of them failed and refused to pay the said taxes or any par t thereof before they became delinquent. On or about May 3, 1976 said taxes were returned by the tax collector to the Bucks County Tax Claim Bureau.

Sometime in or about July, 1976 the school district instituted complaints in assumpsit against each of the enumerated property owners for failure to pay the aforesaid taxes and after appropriate proceedings obtained judgments against each said property owner. A number of the property owners against whom judgments had been secured paid [571]*571the amounts of the judgments to the Bucks County Tax Claim Bureau rather than to the school district. The total amount paid by these taxpayers was $83,212.94 which the Tax Claim Bureau remitted to the school district, retaining, therefrom however, the sum of $3,300.70 representing its alleged commissions and costs thereon. A number of other property owners against whom judgments had been secured paid those judgments directly to the school district in a total amount of $268,890.10. As-a result of those payments made directly to the school district, the Tax Claim Bureau has claimed a sum total of $12,886.05 as its statutory commissions and costs. In order to recover those sums, the Tax Claim Bureau has deducted that amount from its remissions to the school district for other delinquent taxes collected by. the Tax Claim Bureau. It is these two sums, specifically the sum of $12,886.05 and the sum of $3,300.70 which are sought by plaintiff.

There are two questions which must be answered. The first is whether the school district is authorized to collect its delinquent taxes by the use of actions in assumpsit. The second question is, even if the school district is so authorized and proceeds to do so, whether the Tax Claim Bureau is, notwithstanding, entitled to its statutory commissions and costs.

The first question involves the resolution of two separate statutes having to do with the collection of delinquent taxes. The Local Tax Collection Law of May 25, 1945, P.L. 1050, sec. 21, as re-enacted and amended by the Act of November22,1967, P.L. 536, sec. 1, 72 P.S. §5511.21(b), provides:

“In addition to all other remedies provided by this act, each taxing district shall have power to collect [572]*572unpaid taxes from the persons owing such taxes by suit in assumpsit or other appropriate remedy. To each judgment obtained for such taxes there shall be added a penalty of ten per centum together with costs of suit. . . . The right of each such taxing district to collect unpaid taxes under the provisions of this subsection shall not be affected by the fact that such taxes have been entered as liens in the office of the prothonotary, or the fact that the property against which they were levied has been returned to the county commissioners for taxes for prior years.”

Defendant contends that this authority has been abrogated or repealed by implication by the Real Estate Tax Sale Law, heretofore cited.

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Related

Tremont Township School District v. Western Anthracite Coal Co.
364 Pa. 591 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
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397 A.2d 453 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)

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15 Pa. D. & C.3d 569, 1980 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bensalem-township-school-district-v-bucks-county-tax-claim-bureau-pactcomplbucks-1980.