Kohrman v. Rausch

138 N.E.2d 22, 75 Ohio Law. Abs. 193, 1956 Ohio App. LEXIS 788
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 8, 1956
DocketNo. 23861
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 138 N.E.2d 22 (Kohrman v. Rausch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kohrman v. Rausch, 138 N.E.2d 22, 75 Ohio Law. Abs. 193, 1956 Ohio App. LEXIS 788 (Ohio Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

OPINION

By SKEEL, J:

This appeal comes to this Court on questions of law from a judgment and decree entered for the plaintiff by the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County on motions for judgment on the pleadings entered by both parties. The petition seeks a mandatory injunction to cause the county recorder to issue a registered certificate of the title to lands (claimed to be owned by the plaintiff) under the Torrens Law of Ohio, to quiet title and other equitable relief.

The plaintiff’s petition alleges that by order of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, entered in December of 1946, the lands which are the subject of this action were forfeited to the State of Ohio for non-payment of taxes, assessments, penalties and interest. Thereafter, the county auditor offered such forfeited lands for sale at public auction held July 17, 1947, and that the plaintiff became the purchaser at such auditor’s sale. It is alleged that Mary I. Megaw was the owner of such land prior to such forfeited land sale as evidenced by the Cuyahoga County Recorder’s Land Title Registered Certificate No. 46675. That after the entry of forfeiture was put upon the court’s journal, no objection, oral or written, was registered by Mary I. Megaw, and that she wholly failed to redeem the lands or pay the taxes, assessments and other charges thereon. The plaintiff thereafter received a certificate of sale for each lot purchased which was offered to the comity recorder for memorialization on the registered land certificate and that such memorial was entered thereon. Deeds were received at the same time from the county auditor and recorded with the county recorder. The memorial of the certificate of sale received from the auditor was entered on the [196]*196registration certificate for each lot on July 17, 1947. No action thereafter was commenced by the then registered owner, Mary I. Megaw. That on November 12, 1952, the defendant, Harold S. Rausch, procured from Mary I. Megaw a deed of the same lands, which was offered to the county recorder for entry on the Land Title Register with the Certificate of Mary I. Megaw, and the recorder then issued to him Certificate of Title No. 67776 as evidence of title and included thereon all the memorials to which reference is herein made and that the memorials of the certificate of sale and the recording of the auditor’s deeds of 1947 constituted notice to defendant, Rausch, of plaintiff's right and interest to said lands.

Plaintiff then alleges that he is the present owner of said lands and is entitled to have same registered in him. The prayer asks that Rausch and Megaw be compelled to set forth any claims or interest he or they may have or be forever barred and the county officers be required to show why the plaintiff is not entitled to have the property registered to show title in his name and for other equitable relief.

To the allegations of the foregoing amended petition, the defendant, Rausch, by leave of court, filed his amended answer, setting forth five defenses. It is admitted that at a public auction, denominated a forfeited land sale, the county auditor purported to sell to plaintiff as forfeited land for non-payment of taxes, assessments, and other charges, the lands described in plaintiff’s petition which sale this defendant alleges took place on May 14, 1947. He alleges that at the time he acquired title and at the time it was registered in his name in the Torrens Title Records of the County Recorder of Cuyahoga County, no certificates as provided by §5309.53 and §5309.58 R. C. of the forfeiture proceeding appeared on the land title registration certificate pertaining to said sublots. He alleges that he had no title at the time of the attempted forfeiture and sale of these lands as forfeited lands and under the aforesaid provisions of the Revised Code of Ohio, he is not charged with notice at the time he received the title from Mary I. Megaw, now deceased, in November, 1952. The defendant alleges that the county auditor was without authority in law to institute proceedings to conduct a tax sale as described in plaintiff’s amended petition without complying with §5309.53 R. C.; that is, until a memorial of the court order of forfeiture had been entered on the registered certificate of title, and that all proceedings, including the attempted sale and issuance of certificates of sale and deeds, were without legal effect because of the failure to memorialize the orders of the court as provided by law.

The second and third defenses allege that at the time the plaintiff’s petition was filed in November, 1952, the action was barred by statutes of limitation as provided in §2305.07 and §2305.11 R. C.

The fourth defense alleges that a large portion of the delinquent tax claims were for special assessments charged against the property on the tax duplicate assessed by resolution or ordinance of the municipal corporation in which said land is situated, said assessments being for public improvements in the streets upon which such lands front. That said resolutions were passed after the torrenization of the property and be[197]*197fore August 17,1937. The ordinances and resolutions declaring the necessity for such improvements provided that the greater part of the cost of such street improvements should be assessed against the property fronting on the streets to be improved, a part of which property being the subject of this action. That many years have passed (since 1927) and as yet no improvements of any nature have ever been installed and that no benefit whatsoever was conferred on the property because of the alleged street improvement assessments.

It is further alleged that at the time of the commencement of the proceedings to provide for the street improvements herein referred to, the municipal council failed to cause copies of the resolutions of necessity or any of the assessment ordinances for the improvements to be filed with the county recorder and that no memorial of the legislation providing for such improvements or the assessment to be levied therefor was memorialized on the Torrens Register of these lands whereby it is alleged that such assessments as originally made and any attempted respread of such assessments are wholly void under the provisions of §8572.56 GC in effect at the time of these attempted assessments.

The fifth defense alleges that the notice of the 1947 County Auditor’s Sale as advertised as to this property was fatally defective because the amount of taxes and assessments claimed to be due was grossly excessive by the inclusion of the void special assessments.

The plaintiff’s reply does not deny the allegations of fact set forth in defendants-appellants’ five defenses but alleges, except as to such allegations contained in the reply as are clearly conclusions of law, that such facts and statutes as set forth have no application to the action filed by the plaintiff.

The court was requested to find conclusions of fact and law as provided by §2315.22 R. C, which request was seasonably made by the defendant, and the trial court has filed such findings with the papers in the case.

The conclusions of fact follow very closely most of the allegations of the amended answer of the defendant, Rausch. The court finds that all necessary parties are before the court and that this action is brought under the provisions of §5309.60 R. C., requiring a court order before a registration certificate shall issue upon a tax deed issued upon the sale of forfeited torrenized lands.

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

Related

Kincaid v. Yount
459 N.E.2d 235 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
138 N.E.2d 22, 75 Ohio Law. Abs. 193, 1956 Ohio App. LEXIS 788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kohrman-v-rausch-ohioctapp-1956.