Kunze v. Blackwood

113 S.W.2d 705, 195 Ark. 658, 1938 Ark. LEXIS 54
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 21, 1938
Docket4-4934
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 113 S.W.2d 705 (Kunze v. Blackwood) 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
Kunze v. Blackwood, 113 S.W.2d 705, 195 Ark. 658, 1938 Ark. LEXIS 54 (Ark. 1938).

Opinion

Smith, J.

On December 14, 1936, appellee, W. J. Blackwood, filed a suit in ejectment in the circuit court for the eastern district of Clay county, in which he alleged'his ownership of three 40-acre tracts of land there described. He alleged that his title had been acquired through sales under decrees foreclosing the lien of the St. Francis Drainage District, made February 14, 1930, for the nonpayment of the taxes due said improvement district for the years 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929, and also through a sale under a decree foreclosing the lien of Subsidiary District No. 21 of the St. Francis Drainage District for the taxes for the years 1928 and 1929.

The organization of this original district and the subsidiary district pursuant to special acts of the General Assembly is alleged; and the validity of the organization of these districts and their power to sell lands lying therein for the nonpayment of the taxes due thereon is not questioned.

It was alleged that at these sales the lands were sold by the commissioner to the plaintiff drainage district, and that those sales had been duly confirmed, that the period allowed for redemption had expired, and that plaintiff, Blackwood, had duly acquired this title from the district on January 17, 1936.

The defendant named in the action filed a disclaimer on March 15, 1937, alleging that he held possession as the tenant of Gfus J. Kunze, and on the same day Kunze, who asked to be made a party, filed an answer in which he raised the questions hereinafter discussed, and on his motion the case was transferred to equity.

On March 6, 1937, Kunze filed in the chancery court a suit in which he attacked the foreclosure proceedings above-mentioned, and on his motion the two cases were consolidated.

Upon final hearing a decree was rendered upholding the foreclosure proceedings, and this appeal is from that decree.

It is first insisted that Kunze had a right of redemption when the suits were filed, and that he made tender of the taxes and all interest, costs and penalties. This right of redemption is asserted under authority of act 2 of the Acts of the Second Extraordinary Session of the Forty-ninth General Assembly of 1934, p. 3, which act, it is contended, gave an additional right of redemption at any time within three years after its passage, or until January 8, 1937, for that purpose. Without disposing of that question, it may be said that there was no valid attempt to redeem until after that, date, both the answer in the ejectment suit and the suit in the chancery court having been filed at a later date.

It was shown that on November 10, 1936, Kunze offered to pay Blackwood the taxes, interest and costs, as well as the value of any improvements made by Black-wood, and that-the tender was declined. The contention is that this offer of redemption was a sufficient compliance with act 2, supra, to entitle Kunze to its benefits and to entitle him now to the right of redemption. But we do not think so. Section 8 of this act provides that . . the said land may be redeemed by the owner, his agent, or any person for the owner, or anyone or any legal entity or fiduciary having an interest in said land or holding color of title thereto, upon payment to the commissioners of said district of the amount of any assessment or assessments upon which the foreclosure proceedings were based, together with all the costs allocated against said land, but without penalty or interest, . . . .” It is not. alleged that any such tender was •made to the commissioners of the district. Had it been made, and refused upon the ground that the time for redemption had expired and that the district had already conveyed the land to Blackwood, or for any other reason, a different question would be presented if act 2, supra, did, in fact, extend the right of redemption to January 8, 1937. In that case the bill to redeem could have been filed and the requisite deposit made in the registry of the court as was done in the cases of McCuiston v. White, 189 Ark. 857, 75 S. W. 2d 392, and Walker v. Ferguson, 176 Ark. 625, 3 S. W. 2d 694. See, also, Deaner v. Gwaltney, 194 Ark. 332, 108 S. W. 2d 600, and Baur v. Gwaltney, 191 Ark. 1031, 88 S. W. 2d 1005. But it was not alleged, and has not been shown, that Kunze attempted a redemption in the manner provided by act 2, supra, even though that act is applicable to the facts of this case.

At § 3174, vol. 2, of Sloan’s Improvement Districts in Arkansas it is said: “But the right to redeem the land after it has been sold by the commissioner under the decree of the court is purely a privilege conferred by statute, and does not exist independently. The right of the owner to redeem from a judicial sale exists, therefore, only in those cases which fall within the statute granting such privilege, and can be asserted only within, the time and in the manner prescribed by the statute.”

It is contended that the foreclosure decrees and the sales made pursuant thereto are void for the reasons hereinafter stated. First, that the delinquent lists were not properly filed. But that contention is answered adversely to appellant in the cases of Moore v. Long Prairie Levee District, 153 Ark. 85, 239 S. W. 380, and Beasley v. Horner, 173 Ark. 295, 292 S. W. 130.

It is next argued that the complaint did not contain sufficient allegations to confer jurisdiction upon the court to render the decrees of foreclosure, in that it failed to allege that the lands proceeded against were in the Eastern District of Clay county. We do not copy the complaint, but, when read in its entirety, it is not found defective in this respect. Its caption shows that it was brought in the Eastern District of Clay county, and it recites the legislation pursuant to which the districts were org-anizecl and ‘which assessed the taxes alleged to be delinquent, and contains an accurate and correct description of the three tracts of land herein described, which could only be in the Eastern District of Clay county.

It is argued that the notice of filing complaint was defective in that it, too, failed to describe the lands proceeded against. This is the notice provided by the acts creating the districts, and those amending them, which gave notice to the landowners that suit had been filed to enforce the collection of the delinquent drainage taxes. As affecting the lands here involved the descriptions read as follows:

Township' 18 N it. 8 E

Taxes Taxes Name Part of

Sec. Area 1926 1927 of Owner Section

17.75 19.52 Fred Mathews NE SE ^ o \a>

17.75 19.52 Same SE SE bpx o

17.75 19.52 G-eo. H. French SW SE ^ o

Similar notices were published in the oases of the other two foreclosure suits, and the objection is that, instead of describing the land as NE SE, it should have read: NE14 SE1^. The same objection is made, of course, to the description of the other two tracts.

This objection to the description here employed is disposed of by the opinion in the case of Chestnut v. Harris, 64 Ark. 580, 43 S. W. 977, 63 Am. St. Rep, 213, where a similar description had been employed, and was held sufficient. In so holding- Judge Battle said:

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Bluebook (online)
113 S.W.2d 705, 195 Ark. 658, 1938 Ark. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kunze-v-blackwood-ark-1938.