Gardner v. Jones

1956 OK 23, 309 P.2d 731, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 677
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 17, 1956
Docket36893
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1956 OK 23 (Gardner v. Jones) 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
Gardner v. Jones, 1956 OK 23, 309 P.2d 731, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 677 (Okla. 1956).

Opinions

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

This appeal arose out of an action commenced in the trial court by the defendant in error, Jimmy K. Jones, as plaintiff, to quiet his title to a lot or parcel of land. Jones’ title is evidenced by a County Treasurer’s Re-Sale Tax Deed, executed and delivered to him following his purchase of the property at re-sale on May 11, 1953. Plaintiff in error, W. E. Gardner, who, by stipulation of parties, was the owner of the property at the time of the re-sale, was the principal defendant in the trial court, and, by reason of the action’s dismissal as to the other parties originally named as defendants, is Jones’ only adversary appearing here. The case will therefore be considered as if these two were the only parties ever involved, and they will hereinafter be referred to by their trial court designations.

At the close of the trial, the trial court entered a general judgment in favor of the plaintiff and specifically denied any relief to defendant, who, in his answer and cross petition, had asserted that the re-sale deed was invalid, and had prayed for its cancellation and quieting of his title. -Upon the overruling of his motion for new trial, defendant perfected the present appeal.

Defendant bases his argument for reversal on the alleged invalidity of the resale proceedings, and most of it relates to the general contention, or position, that the property was advertised and/or sold for an excessive amount. One of his arguments that can be classified under this general heading pertains to the fact that the 1953 re-sale, and the county’s title to the property purportedly thereby sold to- plaintiff, is based upon an original tax sale .held in 1950 for the 1949 taxes, but the notice of said re-sale included the 1948 taxes, for which the land had■ never been sold at any original tax sale. Defendant concedes that taxes accruing during any year after a delinquent tax sale, may be included in a re-sale, even though there had never been any original sale for said taxes; but his counsel say that if we uphold the inclusion, in a subsequent re-sale, of taxes for a year previous to any original tax sale .of the land, that had never been included in any such original sale, we would, in effect, be holding that a county treasurer could, upon finding that delinquent taxes for a year, 10, 20, or even 30 years previously, still remained on the tax rolls, could include them in a current re-sale, even though they had accumulated a 100% penalty and no original sale — the statutory basis of a re-sale — had ever occurred. Defense counsel cite our decision in Patterson v. Hughes, 194 Okl. 502, 153 P.2d 111, as an answer to such argument. They also cite Bramble v. Caywood, 193 Okl. 668, 146 P.2d 587; but in neither of these cases were the analogous tax delinquencies included in the notice of the resale. Here, the delinquent 1948 taxes, with interest and penalty thereon, were included in the notice as a part of the total amount of delinquent taxes, penalty and interest, for which the land was being sold at the 1953 re-sale. This- fact is cited in support of defense counsel’s argument that the property was advertised for re-sale at a sum in excess of that for which it should have been advertised, and they say this distinguishes this case from the above-cited cases. They contend for application here of the rule that a tax sale of property for a substantial sum more than the amount of taxes, penalty, interest and costs due, renders the sale invalid and the proceedings based thereon void, citing Lind v. McKinley, 196 Okl. 4, [734]*734161 P.2d 1016, and other authorities. That rule, as shown by its own wording, is inapplicable here, for it is agreed that the 1948 taxes were due and delinquent. Nor do we think that the inclusion of the amount due therefor, with penalty and interest, rendered the re-sale invalid. In Patterson v. Hughes and Bramble v. Caywood, supra, there was some statutory basis for the argument that the notice was insufficient, upon consideration of the wording of Tit. 68 O.S. 1941 §§ 382 and 432b, requiring tax sale and re-sale notices to show the amount of taxes due and delinquent; but here no such argument is, or can be, made. We think the considerations which induced this Court in those cases to refrain from requiring strict compliance with notice statutes, in favor of upholding the validity of re-sale deeds, should apply with equal, if not greater, force here, where there is no contention that the applicable notice statute was not strictly complied with. Nor can the re-sale here be said to be without the necessary statutory predicate of a valid original sale, as was the case in Gassaway v. Skiveers, 182 Okl. 9, 75 P.2d 1149, cited by defendants, and Ewart v. Boettcher, 174 Okl. 460, 50 P.2d 676. In this connection see also Bradford v. Schmucker, 10 Cir., 135 F.2d 991, and the cases cited therein. Since there was a valid original sale, in 1950, for the 1949 taxes, and a resale of the property, in 1953, for these taxes (and those for other years), the re-sale was based upon at least one valid original sale. Consistent with previous decisions such as hereinbefore referred to, we must hold that the inclusion of the amount of the 1948 taxes in the notice of the 1953 re-sale here involved, was not a sufficient basis for cancellation of plaintiff’s re-sale deed in the present action. Accordingly, the trial court cannot be said to have erred in refusing, by its judgment, to grant defendant such relief on account of such alleged irregularity.

Defense counsel’s argument under Paragraph “A” of their “Proposition One,” that the amount for which the property was advertised and resold was in excess of the total sum of taxes, penalty, interest and costs legally due refers only to the penalties, which were shown by the County Treasurer’s Report of the re-sale' to , have been charged on the delinquent taxes for each of the years 1948 and 1952, both inclusive. By the computations set forth in their brief,-they attempt to show that the respective penalties, charged on each of these years’ taxes was in each instance either 39 or 40 cents too much, with the sum of these penalties for the five years being excessive to the extent of $2.01. Counsel for plaintiff say this is the first time defendant has sought to raise this question, and that, under the rule that parties will not be permitted to argue in this Court for the first time, questions not raised in the trial court, we should not consider such argument. In this connection see Sims v. Bennett, 208 Okl. 321, 255 P.2d 916, with the cases cited therein, and Meyer v. Corn, 191 Okl. 537, 131 P.2d 62. In his reply brief, defendant denies that the cited rule is applicable, because, according to his argument, whether or not the penalties charged were excessive should be deemed a part of the issues joined plaintiff’s petition and the denials contained in his answer, and, as having been included in the allegations of error contained in his motion for a new trial. The record fails to reveal that the question now dealt with was ever specifically raised at the trial. It does reveal that in connection with the introduction, as “defendant’s Exhibit 3”, of a 'copy of the applicable portion of the published re-sale notice, a take-off or transcript of page 19 of the County Treasurer’s Report Of The Re-Sale was also introduced. On said take-off appears the list of penalties, each of which is asserted to be excessive in the amount of 39 or 40 cents for each of the five years.

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Gardner v. Jones
1956 OK 23 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
1956 OK 23, 309 P.2d 731, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gardner-v-jones-okla-1956.