Cooper v. Gunter

114 S.W. 943, 215 Mo. 558, 1908 Mo. LEXIS 294
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 23, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 114 S.W. 943 (Cooper v. Gunter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooper v. Gunter, 114 S.W. 943, 215 Mo. 558, 1908 Mo. LEXIS 294 (Mo. 1908).

Opinion

VALLIANT, P. J.

This suit is aimed to come under section 650, Revised Statutes 1899', to quiet title to a quarter section of land in Texas county. The petition alleges that it is wild land in the possession of no one, that plaintiff is the owner in fee, that defendant claims title adverse to plaintiff, that both plaintiff and defendant claim from a common source, but that defendant’s title comes through a sale for taxes which was illegal and void. The prayer is for a decree adjusting the title. The defendant in his answer does not assert title in himself but only denies that plaintiff has title. But the cause was tried by both parties as if by the pleadings each was asserting a title in con[561]*561flict with the other, it was so treated by the court and so we will treat it.

On the trial the plaintiff as proof of his title introduced a warranty deed from Lamar dated June 3, 1899, to himself, and then he undertook to prove what the defendant’s title was and to do so he introduced a sheriff’s deed to one Cameron of date May 21, 1901, purporting to be the result of a sale under special execution on a judgment of the circuit court rendered November 21, 1900, for delinquent taxes for -the year 1898, in a cause wherein the county collector was plaintiff and this plaintiff was defendant; then ■followed mesne conveyances from Cameron to the defendant. The plaintiff introduced evidence, over the defendant’s objection, tending to show that the taxes on this land for the year 1898 were paid before the suit in which the judgment was rendered was begun, and he also introduced the judgment under which the sheriff’s sale was made, which judgment did not state the year or years for which the taxes that were adjudged delinquent were found to be due. With that the plaintiff rested. Then the defendant, to show the source of the plaintiff’s title, introduced a deed dated November 15, 1898, from the sheriff under special execution on a judgment in a tax suit against one Long and others conveying the land to Lamar, the plaintiff’s grantor. There was no question raised as to the regularity of that proceeding, sale and deed. In defense of his own title defendant introduced evidence tending to show that the petition in the case in which the judgment under which he claims was rendered was lost and could not be found, but no effort was made to prove its contents, but defendant also introduced the order of publication against the plaintiff here, the defendant in that suit, as a non-resident, in which publication it was stated that the suit was [562]*562to recover the taxes due for the year 1898. Defendant also introduced the sheriff’s execution docket, the sheriff’s notice of sale and the judge’s docket. These last three offers were seemingly to help to supply the omission in the judgment to state the year for which the taxes were delinquent, hut if so they do not, so far as Ave can see from the abstract, answer that purpose; they do not give that information. In the sheriff’s notice of sale it is recited that the sale was “for certain delinquent taxes and interest thereon as set forth in a judgment,” etc., giAdng the date of the judgment referred to, the court and the names of the parties, thus referring to the judgment itself for the necessary information. There was also some evidence tending to show that the taxes for 1898 were not paid. The finding and judgment of the court were for the plaintiff decreeing the fee simple title in him. Defendant appealed.

Defendant’s main proposition is that he claims under the judgment in the tax suit against the plaintiff, that that judgment was rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, and that it is not subject to a collateral attack. The proposition as so stated is a correct declaration of law and is sustained by the cases cited in appellant’s brief. [Evarts v. Lumber & Mining Co., 193 Mo. 433; Johnson v. Stebbins-Thompson Realty Co., 167 Mo. 325; Jones v. Driskill, 94 Mo. 190.] But a judgment to be safe from, a collateral attack must on its face or on the whole record appear to be lawful. Wien a court is proceeding to render a judgment in conformity with a statute authorizing a particular proceeding which was unknown to the common law, though it be a court of general jurisdiction and though the court be proceeding in accordance with the course of the common law, as far as it is applicable to' the statutory proceeding, yet the judgment must conform to- the requirements of the statute under the authority of which alone it is ren[563]*563dered, when the requirements of the statute are mandatory and when the points are essential. The statute says: “In all suits under this chapter, the general laws of the State as to practice and proceedings in civil cases shall apply, so far as applicable and not contrary to this chapter.” [Section 9303, R. S. 1899; 4 Ann. Stat., pp. 4274-5.] The same section also prescribes what the petition shall contain, among which: “all lands owned by the same person or persons may be included in one petition and in one count thereof, for the taxes of all such years as taxes may be due thereon, and said petition shall show the different years for which taxes are due, as well as the several hinds of taxes or funds to which they are due, with the respective amounts due to each fund; all of which shall be set forth in a taxhill of said back taxes, duly authenticated by the certificate of the collector, and filed with the petition.” The next section, 9304, prescribes what shall he shown on the face of the judgment: “The judgment, if against the defendant, shall describe the land upon which taxes are found to be due; shall state the amount of taxes and interest found to be due on each tract or lot, and the year or years for which the same are due. ’ ’

It would perhaps not be contended in the face of this statute that a petition in such case which failed to state the year for which the taxes are claimed to be due would state a cause of action. In Bland v. Windsor, 187 Mo. 108, the court said that the taxes for each year was a separate and distinct cause of action and that a petition that failed to state the year the taxes sued for were claimed to he due would be fatally defective. The General Assembly deemed it essential to require that fact to be shown not only in the petition but also in the taxhill filed therewith, so that the person whose land was threatened would know exactly what was the demand of the tax collector. And, to give further emphasis to this as an essential point, the lawmaker [564]*564in the very next, section, prescribing what shall be put into the judgment to be spread on the record of the court, industriously repeats that it shall state the year or years for which the taxes are found to be due. How can we say that is not essential which the General Assembly has, with so much pains, insisted is essential? Appellant contends that a judgment of a court of general jurisdiction is not to be set at naught because it does not show an essential fact if on the whole record that fact otherwise appears. That is a correct statement of the law as a general proposition, and there is no occasion for us, in this case, to say that in this statutory proceeding that rule does or does not apply, or that this essential fact, which the Legislature has said must appear in the judgment, cannot be supplied by referring to other parts of the record, because, in this case, that fact does not appear elsewhere in the record, at least not elsewhere in the record where it should be to have that effect.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Spitcaufsky v. Hatten
182 S.W.2d 86 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1944)
State Ex Rel. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Reynolds
233 S.W. 219 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1921)
Swift v. Buford
217 S.W. 980 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1920)
Cole v. Parker-Washington Co.
207 S.W. 749 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1918)
Miller v. Medley
139 S.W. 158 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 S.W. 943, 215 Mo. 558, 1908 Mo. LEXIS 294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-v-gunter-mo-1908.