McCarthy v. Union Pac. Ry. Co.

131 P.2d 326, 58 Wyo. 308, 1942 Wyo. LEXIS 23
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 24, 1942
Docket2226
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 131 P.2d 326 (McCarthy v. Union Pac. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCarthy v. Union Pac. Ry. Co., 131 P.2d 326, 58 Wyo. 308, 1942 Wyo. LEXIS 23 (Wyo. 1942).

Opinion

*314 Blume, Justice.

This is an action brought by plaintiff Nellie McCarthy against Elizabeth C. Hayes and others to quiet title to the following property situated in Carbon County, Wyoming, namely:

All of Sections Nineteen (19) and Twenty-three (23) South of the Union Pacific Railroad and all of Sections Twenty-five (25), Twenty-seven (27), Twenty-nine (29), Thirty-one (31), Thirty-three (33), and Thirty-five (35) and twenty-four (24) acres in the South Half (S/2) of Section Twenty-one (21) all in Township Twenty-one (21), North of Range Eighty-Six (86), *315 West of the Sixth (6) Principal Meridian in the County of Carbon, State of Wyoming as platted and recorded in the office of the County Clerk and Ex-Officio Register of Deeds in and for the said County of Carbon,

containing about 4617 acres of land. The property was conveyed by the Union Pacific R. R. Company in 1920, subject to coal and mineral rights, to Mark F. Madden and Michael S. Madden, by deed duly recorded. In 1926 Mark S. Madden conveyed his interest therein to Michael S. Madden, by deed duly recorded. In the early part of 1933, Michael S. Madden conveyed the land to Elizabeth C. Hayes, the appellant herein, by deed duly recorded. Plaintiff claims under a tax title, on account of the non-payment of taxes for 1932. In that year the land was assessed in the name of “Madden Bros.” for the sum of §5770. The taxes remaining unpaid, and notice having been published, the land was, on August 24, 1933, sold to Carbon County for §149.32, the amount of the taxes, penalty, interest and costs then due. No redemption having been made, the county treasurer of Carbon County, on April 12, 1937, sent notice addressed to “Madden Bros.” at 140 So. Durham St., Chicago, Illinois, and to whom it may concern, that the time for redemption would expire on August 25, 1937, in default of which a tax deed would be issued to the county at that time. The envelope containing the notice was addressed to Elizabeth C. Hayes, the appellant herein, and receipt of the letter was acknowledged by “Elizabeth C. Hayes by M. S. Madden,” on April 16, 1937. No redemption having been made, a tax deed was accordingly issued to the county, which in turn, in September, 1937, sold the land to one R. A. Hakala. Plaintiff claims through him. The defendant Elizabeth C. Hayes, owner under the deed from Michael S. Madden, claims that the tax title above mentioned is invalid for the reasons hereinafter mentioned, and in a cross-petition filed herein, she offered to pay the taxes due, *316 and asked that the title to the property be quieted in her. The court entered judgment for the plaintiff, quieting title in her. From that judgment Elizabeth C. Hayes has appealed. She will hereafter be mentioned by name or as appellant.

The parties, through their attorneys, stipulated the following facts:

1. Mark F. Madden and Michael S. Madden, residing in the city of Chicago, became the owners in fee of the above described premises by virtue of a warranty deed from the Union Pacific Railroad Company, dated April 7, 1920, and recorded in book 146 of the records of the county clerk of Carbon County, Wyoming. In said deed all coal and other minerals were reserved to the Union Pacific Railroad Company. 2. On October 27, 1926, Mark F. Madden conveyed his interest in the above real estate to Michael S. Madden by quit claim deed, duly registered in Carbon County on November 3, 1926, in Book 182, page 254. 3. On July 12, 1932, Michael S. Madden and his wife mortgaged the aforesaid lands to appellant, the mortgage being recorded on July 5, 1932 in book 206 p. 492, mortgage records of Carbon County. 4. Michael S. Madden conveyed all his right, title and interest in the foregoing land to appellant by quit claim deed, dated May 24, 1933, recorded June 5, 1933, in book 207, page 387, records of Carbon County. 5. Appellant on June 5, 1933, became the record owner in fee of said property, and has never conveyed it to anyone else. 6. Mark F. Madden, Michael S. Madden and appellant are all residents of Chicago, Illinois, and have never been residents of Wyoming, and have never occupied the foregoing lands. 7. Appellant is ready, willing and able to promptly pay all property taxes, taxation charges, penalties and interest against the foregoing lands at any time when the proper amount thereof has been ascertained. 8. The property was assessed in 1926 to 1932 both inclusive *317 in the name of Madden Bros., and these taxes, except for 1932, were paid by check of Madden Bros. There is no evidence that M. S. Madden raised any objection to this assessment or payment. 9. The certificate of the assessor to the assessment roll and tax list of 1932 is dated September 1, 1932, and was subscribed and sworn to on March 18, 1933.

In August, 1937, letters were interchanged between Madden Bros, and the county treasurer of Carbon County. The former asked for the amount necessary to redeem the land from tax sale. The information asked was given. On August 21,1937, the sum of only $150.82 was remitted, Madden Bros, stating that they did not have the money to pay all the taxes due. The amount remitted being insufficient — and not including subsequent taxes — was returned by the county treasurer. The letters from Madden Bros, stated that the appellant was the owner of the land. In 1934 a lease of the land to the Savage Live Stock Company was entered into by the latter and the appellant, and the lease was continued orally from year to year, the Live Stock company still occupying the land in 1937 under this lease. Payments of the rental were apparently all made to M. S. Madden. The record contains a receipt for $350.00, for the rental of the land from June 1, 1936, to June 1, 1937, signed by “M. S. Madden, agent for E. C. Hayes.”

It is contended on behalf of the appellant that the tax title herein is void because of the illegal assessment of the land in 1932 in the name of “Madden Bros.,” when it should have been in the name of Michael S. Madden; because the assessment roll was not certified by the assessor until in the year 1933; because of insufficiency of notices given and because no notice was served on the occupant of the land as required by statute. We think it is not necessary to discuss any of the contentions except the first, namely, that the land was *318 illegally assessed in the name of Madden Bros. This court held in the case of Hecht v. Boughton, 2 Wyo. 385, that a tax title based on an assessment of real property not in the name of the true owner is void. In that case the assessment was made in the name of the husband, instead of his grantee, his wife. The court examined the various statutory provisions then in force. These provisions are substantially those still in force, and we need not examine them separately at this time. There are now additional statutory provisions. In 1907, the legislature, by section 7, chapter 80, of the Session Laws of that year (Sec. 30-306, Rev. St. 1931), provided as to the county assessor:

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Bluebook (online)
131 P.2d 326, 58 Wyo. 308, 1942 Wyo. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccarthy-v-union-pac-ry-co-wyo-1942.