Rouse v. Teeter

216 S.W.2d 869, 214 Ark. 488, 1949 Ark. LEXIS 587
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 17, 1949
Docket4-8660
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 216 S.W.2d 869 (Rouse v. Teeter) 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
Rouse v. Teeter, 216 S.W.2d 869, 214 Ark. 488, 1949 Ark. LEXIS 587 (Ark. 1949).

Opinion

Smith, J.

This appeal involves the title to two parcels of land, one described as the NW1/^ of lot 4, and the other as the NE 50 feet of the NW% of lot 3, block 71, Brad Scott’s Addition to the City of Prescott. No question is made as to these unusual descriptions, and there appears to be no uncertainty or disagreement among the parties to this litigation as to the lots in- question.

The suit was brought by appellant to quiet her title to the lots above described, and to cancel certain deeds under which appellee claims title. The parties deraign their respective titles as follows. Will M. Waller acquired title to all lots 3 and 4, by deed from W. T, Hart in 1905, and for many years and until his death in 1940, resided in the house located on the SE% of lot 4, which house was not on either of the parcels of land above described.

On Oct. 3, 1927, Will M. Waller, and Bess, his wife, executed a deed of trust to the SE% of lots 3 and 4 to the First State Bank, to secure an indebtedness of $2,500: These lands are not involved in the present suit, but adjoin those which are.

On July 2, 1928, Will M. Waller and wife executed a deed of trust to appellant, Marion W. Rouse, who was his sister, upon the lands involved in this suit and other lands, to secure a debt of $200 due November 15, 1928. This instrument bears a marginal endorsement upon the record, releasing a part of the lands which are not involved in this suit from the lien of this deed of trust.

On May 1, 1931, Will M. Waller and wife executed another deed of trust upon the lands here involved to appellant, Marion W. Rouse, to secure an indebtedness of $1,625, due May 1, 1932, bearing interest at the rate of 8%.

The entire E%, block 71 was assessed en masse for the general taxes of 1928, and the taxes not having been paid, it was sold and later certified to the state.

On June 21, 1932, the State Land Commissioner conveyed the E% block 71 to the First State Bank, and on June 27, 1932, the bank executed a quitclaim deed to the parcels involved in this suit, to appellant, which deed was not filed for record until May 24, 1943.

Will M. Waller, W. B. Waller, Jr., and appellant are the children and sole heirs at law of their mother, Mollie R. Waller, now deceased. Mollie R Waller guaranteed the payment of Will M. Waller’s debt to appellant. The debt was not paid, and the claim was duly probated against Mollie R. Waller’s estate. The probated demand was paid in installments, the final payment being made March 3, 1936, and the debt was marked paid in full by marginal endorsement on September 19; 1940‘.

On March 8, 1938, a decree was entered by the Nevada Chancery Court, in which county the lands are situated, condemning the NW% of lot 4, block 71, for sale for past due assessments of benefits in Street Improvement District No. 5, of the City of Prescott, for the years 1935 and 1936 and 1937. The other lot was not in the improvement district.

The Clerk of the Chancery Court had not complied with the provisions of § 7319, Pope’s Digest, which require the clerk to record the list of lands on which delinquent assessments are due improvement districts. A foreclosure decree was entered pursuant to which the lot was sold to the Improvement District, which sale was reported to and approved by the court on Dec. 29, 1938, and on Oct. 30, 1945, the improvement district sold and conveyed the lot to appellee.

On November 25, 1938, the bank filed suit against Will M. Waller to foreclose its lien on the SE^, lots 3 and 4, and on March 10, 1939, Will M. Waller and wife conveyed SE%, lots 3 and 4 to the bank for the consideration recited in the deed of trust. By deed dated May 4, 1943, the bank conveyed SEIA lots 3 and 4 to appellee. Neither of these lots is involved in the present suit.

On September 7, 1938,.Will M. Waller and wife conveyed'the NW% of lot 4 to Will Ed. Waller, who on October 29, 1945, executed a deed to appellee to both of the lots involved in this case, that is, the NW% of lot 4 and the NE 50 feet of the NW% of lot 3.

Appellant paid the improvement taxes on the NW% of lot 4 for the years 1932, 1933 and 1934 and she also paid the general taxes on both lots from 1932 continuously to and including the year 1942, and the years 1944 and 1945. The 1943 taxes were paid by Bess Waller, the widow of Will M. Waller.

Upon this record appellant’s suit, which was one to quiet her title, was dismissed as being without equity, from which decree is this appeal.

Inasmuch as this is a suit by appellant to quiet her title to the two lots herein several times described, we are not concerned with the validity of appellee’s title except in so far as it affects the validity of appellant’s title. This for the. reason that if appellant is accorded the relief prayed/ it must be upon the strength and validity of her own title and not upon the invalidity of appellee’s title, although apellee pleads laches and limitations in bar of appellant’s suit.

Appellant insists that if her title is otherwise good and valid, it is unaffected by the sale in the foreclosure suit of the improvement district, foreclosing its lien for the unpaid taxes due it. Inasmuch as the sale under the decree and the confirmation thereof was had more than five years before the institution of this suit, the suit would appear to be barred by § 8924, Pope’s Digest, which provides that all actions against the purchaser for the recovery of lands sold at judicial sales shall be brought within five years after the date of such sale and not thereafter, with certain exceptions not relevant here. The holding in the case of Cutsinger v. Strang, 203 Ark. 699, 158 S. W. 2d 669, would bar this suit, unless it appeared, as was said in that case, that it affirmatively appears from the record that facts essential to the jurisdiction of the court did not exist. Appellant insists that this lack of jurisdiction does affirmatively appear, for the reason that there had been no compliance with § 7319, Pope’s Digest, supra.

It was pointed out in the case of Douglas v. Ferris, 197 Ark. 32, 122 S. W. 2d 558, that § 8924, Pope’s Digest, does not apply to a void sale by an improvement district. Dupree v. Williams, 172 Ark. 979, 291 S. W. 84. But was the sale void for the failure to comply with § 7319, Pope’s Digest? The case of Douglas v. Ferris, supra, apparently gives some support to that contention, but the support is more apparent than real. The sale in that case was for unpaid betterment assessments to the St. Francis Levee District, and was had, as the opinion points out, under the provisions of special acts relating to the levee district which provided that the filing of the delinquent list of lands was mandatory and essential to confer jurisdiction to order the sale of the delinquent lands, and it was there held that a sale without compliance with the requirement that the list of delinquent lands he filed, was void, and might he collaterally attacked. It was held in this case of Douglas v. Ferris, supra, that the requirement that the delinquent list he filed and recorded was jurisdictional because the special acts under which the levee district had proceeded so expressly provided.

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Bluebook (online)
216 S.W.2d 869, 214 Ark. 488, 1949 Ark. LEXIS 587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rouse-v-teeter-ark-1949.