Bramble v. Caywood

1944 OK 45, 146 P.2d 587, 193 Okla. 668, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 338
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 8, 1944
DocketNo. 30442.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1944 OK 45 (Bramble v. Caywood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bramble v. Caywood, 1944 OK 45, 146 P.2d 587, 193 Okla. 668, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 338 (Okla. 1944).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

Sam Caywood sued C. F. Bramble and wife in ejectment and to quiet title to certain real estate, being an improved lot located in the city of Henryetta. The lot was sold to the county for delinquent taxes in November, 1933. In the absence of redemption, the lot was advertised for resale in 1939 for the amount of $549.42, including penalties, interests and costs. Three-fourths of the 1938 taxes against the land were not paid at that time, and the amount thereof was not included in the notice of resale. On default of bidders, the property was bid in in the name of the county for the full amount of taxes, etc., shown in the return to be $549.42. Resale tax deed was issued to the chairman of the board of county commissioners. On April 10, 1940, plaintiff offered to purchase the lot from the county for $56. After notice as provided by law, upon default of other bidders, the bid was approved and a commissioners’ deed was issued and recorded on May 22, 1940.

Defendants had purchased the property in 1929 and went into possession at the time. Defendants’ deed was not placed of record until June, 1940. Defendants tendered, by answer, the full amount paid by the plaintiff for the commissioners’ deed. At the trial defendants tendered in open court the full amount of taxes, penalties, interest, and costs. The trial court held plaintiff’s title good, and defendants appeal.

There is some contention that the commissioners’ deed to plaintiff is void for the reason that he paid less than two-thirds of the appraised value of the property and less than the full amount of .delinquent taxes, penalties, interest, and costs assessed and due against the land.

Under Title 68 O. S. 1941 § 432j, property acquired by a county under the provisions of the resale tax laws may be sold by the treasurer after notice by publication at such price as may be approved by the board of county commissioners. There was full compliance with the statutory provisions in this respect.

The principal contention is that the resale deed to the county is void for the reason that the land was bid in by the county for less than the total amount of taxes, penalties, interest, and costs delinquent and unpaid at the time of resale, and for the further reason that the county treasurer failed to attach a copy of the notice of resale to his return of sale. Failure to attach a copy of the notice of sale to the return of sale will not invalidate a sale when it is shown that notice by publication was actually made. Rucker et al. v. Burke et ux., 170 Okla. 243, 39 P. 2d 6. The record in this case discloses that advertisement adequate as to time was actually made.

Title 68 O. S. 1941 § 432d requires that improved real estate within a city or town, if sold to an individual at resale, must sell for a sum not less than two-thirds of the assessed value as fixed for the current fiscal year, or the total amount of taxes, penalties, interest, and costs due and delinquent, whichever is the lesser. But if no individual bids such amount, the law directs that the county treasurer bid the same in in the name of the county, and that all property bid off in the name of the county shall be for the amount of all taxes, penalties, interest, and costs due thereon. In this case, the lot was bid off in the name of the county for $549.42, the amount of taxes, penalties, interest, and costs as shown in the notice of resale. The question then arises: Was the notice sufficient as to amount of taxes, penalties, interest, and costs against the property so sold? Title 68 O. S. 1941 § 432b requires such notice to contain:

“ . . . the total amount of all delinquent taxes, costs, penalties and interest accrued, due and unpaid on the same,

The last quarter of the 1938 taxes did not become delinquent until May 1, 1939, under Title 68 O. S. 1941 § 351. Moreover, by section 1, art. 29, ch. 66, Session Laws 1939, page 541 (68 O. S. *670 1941 § 351), effective March 7, 1939, the delinquent date ior 1938 taxes was apparently advanced to July 1, 1940, if the land involved was a homestead as defined in House Bill No. 3, Extraordinary Session of the 16th Legislature, 1936-37 Session Laws, page 52. Therein a homestead as used in said act is declared to mean and include the actual residence of a natural person who is a citizen of the State of Oklahoma; provided, the record actual ownership of such residence be vested in such natural person residing and domiciled thereon. The evidence brings the defendants’ land within such definition unless the fact that defendants’ deed thereto was not of record excludes the lot therefrom. Therefore, there is grave doubt whether any of the 1938 taxes against the land were delinquent in 1939. It is apparent that it was not the legislative intent as declared by its act to have included the three-fourths of the 1938 ad valorem taxes in the otherwise total amount of the taxes, penalties, etc., for which said property should be sold at the resale held in 1939.

The county treasurer apparently so construed the law in that the notice of resale stated:

“All properties listed herein sold subject to special improvement assessments and 1938 ad valorem taxes not shown.”

Under Title 68 O. S. 1941 § 432h, a resale tax deed valid on its face, executed in substantial compliance with Title 68 O. S. 1941 § 432g, is prima facie evidence that the property was legally sold at resale to the grantee named in said resale deed and was duly advertised before being sold, and that all proceedings, notices, and duties required of and imposed by law prerequisite to vesting authority in the county treasurer to execute such deed had been followed, given, complied with, and performed. But see Welborn et al. v. Whitney et al., 190 Okla. 630, 126 P. 2d 263, as to time required for publication notice under prior statute, article 31, ch. 66, sec. 9, p. 551, Session Laws 1939; and Rucker et al. v. Burke et ux., supra.

Said section further provides that:

“ ... To defeat the deed it must be clearly plead and clearly proven that one or more of the essential prerequisites to the vesting of authority in said county treasurer to execute such deed was wholly omitted and not done; and a showing that one or more of said prerequisites was irregularly done shall not be sufficient to defeat the deed.”

The omission to include in the notice of sale the first, second, and third installments of the 1938 taxes, even if contrary to the directory provisions of the statute, constituted, at most, an irregularity, and certainly did not constitute a failure to advertise the land for sale for taxes, interest, penalties, and costs due and delinquent. Consequently, such advertisement and sale was a substantial compliance with the law, and there was no essential prerequisite wholly omitted. Davis v. Fariss, 180 Okla. 125, 68 P. 2d 417; Chamberlain et al. v. Davis, 191 Okla. 457, 130 P. 2d 848.

We are not unmindful of the holding of this court in Pimm v. Waldron et al., 118 Okla. 5, 244 P. 37; Mahoney v. Barton, 168 Okla. 586, 35 P. 2d 443; Deneen et al. v. Gillespie, 180 Okla. 342, 70 P. 2d 1078; Oldham, Adm’r, v. Tucker, Adm’r, 188 Okla. 13, 105 P. 2d 757; Chiles v. Packnett, 191 Okla. 291, 129 P. 595; and Thompson et al. v. Tillman, 191 Okla. 305, 129 P. 2d 576..

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Bluebook (online)
1944 OK 45, 146 P.2d 587, 193 Okla. 668, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bramble-v-caywood-okla-1944.