Champion v. Williams

264 S.W. 972, 165 Ark. 328, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 448
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJuly 7, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 264 S.W. 972 (Champion v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Champion v. Williams, 264 S.W. 972, 165 Ark. 328, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 448 (Ark. 1924).

Opinion

McCulloch, C. J.

Appellants instituted this action in the circuit court of Benton County against appellees to recover possession' of a tract of land in that county containing forty acres. The land in controversy is shown to be in high state of improvement, and appellees and their grantors, immediate and remote, have been in actual possession thereof for more than fifty years, claiming to be the owners. Appellants deraign title back to the United States, and the immediate foundation of that' title is a deed, executed in the year 1859 by J. B. Booth to their ancestor, Mary F. Champion, the effect of which, under the statute (Crawford & Moses’ Digest, § 1499), was to convey an estate for life to Mary F. Champion, with remainder over to appellants. Mary F. Champion died on February 9, 1922, and this action was instituted shortly thereafter.

The material facts of the case are undisputed, being brought into the record either by agreement of counsel or by documentary evidence about which there is no dispute. The land was sold on November 15, 1869, for the taxes assessed against it for the year 1868. James Elam was the purchaser at the tax sale, and he assigned his certificate of purchase to John F. Owen, who received a tax deed from the clerk on December 30, 1872. Appellees deraign title by mesne conveyances back to John F. Owen. In the year 1906 M. L. Burns, who was then the holder of the title, under which appellees claim, and who is one of the remote grantors of appellees, instituted an action under the statute (Crawford & Moses’ Digest, §§ 8362 et seq.) to confirm her title, and a confirmation decree was rendered in accordance with the prayer of the petition. That decree and the record accompanying it was pleaded hy appellees in bar of the right of appellants to recover the land.

It appears from the agreed statement of facts that, at the time the land was conveyed by J. B. Booth in the year 1859, it was wild and unoccupied, and remained so until possession was taken by Owen under his tax deed in the year 1872. Neither Mary F. Champion nor any one claiming in her right ever occupied the land. Mary F. Champion and her husband removed to Texas in the year 1864, and remained there until they died, her husband’s death antedating her own death about ten years.

Appellees pleaded that they had a perfect title under the tax sale of 1869, and also pleaded the statute of limitations as a defense — the two-year statute under the tax deed, and the seven-year general statute of limitation. Crawford & Moses ’ Digest, §§ 6947, 6942.

Appellants attack the validity of the tax sale under which appellees claim title.

The case was tried before the court sitting as a jury, and the court found specifically that the tax sale was void, but found generally in favor of appellees. Appellants’ motion for a new trial was overruled, and they have prosecuted an appeal to this court.

The facts of the case upon all the issues presented are undisputed, and the question presented is whether the judgment of the court was correct or whether it was erroneous, irrespective of the particular findings made by the court.

The finding of the court that the tax sale to which appellees deraign title was void was, we think, correct. The validity of the sale was attacked on two grounds— one that it was made on a day not authorized by law, and the other on the ground that the amount for which the sale was made included school taxes, which it does not appear from the record were levied by the county court as provided by the statute in force at that time. The act of February 19, 1369, under which the tax sale in question was made, specified no fixed date for making tax sales, hut, on the contrary, contained provisions which rendered it impossible to determine, as a matter of law, whether the sale was made in accordance with the statute (McWilliams v. Bonner, 69 Ark. 99); however, the deed now under consideration contains recitals which show affirmatively that it was not made in accordance with the provisions of the statute. The deed recites that the delinquent list was filed with the clerk by the collector on August 1, 1869, and that the sale, after being duly advertised, was made- on November 15, 1869. The statute then in force (act of February 19, 1869, supra) provided that the clerk, immediately after the delinquent list was returned, should publish the same for at least three weeks, and that the sale should be held on the “Monday next succeeding.” ■ The recital in the deed that the collector’s delinquent list was filed on August 1, 1869, and that the sale was held oh November 15, 1869, shows affirmatively that the provisions of the statute were not complied with, and that the sale was void. Boehm v. Porter, 54 Ark. 665. In the ease just cited the collector had'filed his delinquent list -on-the first day of June, and the court said that “if the clerk had complied with § 14 of the act by publishing the list ‘immediately,’ the sale would necessarily have taken place hi June or July. So far, then, as appears from this record, the sale was at a later day than the law authorized.” The sale of the land was also void for the reason that the amount for which the land was sold included school taxes, which were not properly levied by the county court.

The judgment of the circuit court is defended by counsel for appellees on the ground that the right of action of appellants was barred by the statute of limitation — by each of the statutes pleaded. This contention is untenable, for the reason that, as appellants were the owners of the remainder interest in the land, subject to the life estate of their ancestor, Mary F. Champion, their right of action did not accrue until the expiration of t-he life estate upon the death of Mary F. Champion, and that neither statute of limitation began to run against them until that time. The two-year statute applicable to possession under tax deed applies to any deed which sufficiently describes the land occupied and purports to convey the same, even though the deed is void on its face for other reasons (Ross v. Royal, 77 Ark. 324; Dickinson v. Hardie, 79 Ark. 364; Black v. Brown, 129 Ark. 270), but the operation of that statute is subject to the restriction that it does not begin to run until a right of action accrues, and it does not begin to run against a remainderman until the expiration of the prior estate. It has long been the recognized rule of this court, reiterated in many decisions, that the statute of limitation does not begin to run against a remainderman or reversioner until the death of the owner of the particular estate. The cases on the subject are cited in the recent case of Hayden v. Hill, 128 Ark. 342, where we said: “This court has held in a long line of eases that the right of entry, and therefore the right of action, does not accrue to the remainderman or reversioner until the death of the owner of the particular estate.” The opinion in that case shows that there is no distinction between an instance where the adverse occupant holds under a life tenant or under an independent claim of title, or- as a mere trespasser. This rule was again reiterated in the more recent case of Kennedy v. Burns, 140 Ark. 367. Other eases not cited in Hayden v. Hill, supra, are Killeam v. Carter, 65 Ark. 68; Gannon v. Moore, 83 Ark. 196; Harris v. Brady, 87 Ark. 428; Smith v. Scott, 92 Ark. 143. The decisions in the following cases related to the application of the two-year statute: Gannon v. Moore, supra; Harris v. Brady, supra; Smith v. Scott, supra; Kennedy v. Burns, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
264 S.W. 972, 165 Ark. 328, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/champion-v-williams-ark-1924.