Town of Blue Hill v. Leighton

2011 ME 103, 30 A.3d 848, 2011 Me. LEXIS 103
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedOctober 25, 2011
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2011 ME 103 (Town of Blue Hill v. Leighton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Town of Blue Hill v. Leighton, 2011 ME 103, 30 A.3d 848, 2011 Me. LEXIS 103 (Me. 2011).

Opinion

ALEXANDER, J.

[¶ 1] Dorothy Leighton appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court (Hancock County, Cuddy, J.), vacating a forcible entry and detainer judgment in her favor entered by the District Court (Ellsworth, Staples, J.). In vacating the District Court judgment, the Superior Court remanded the matter for entry of judgment and issuance of a writ of possession in favor of the town of Blue Hill. On appeal, Leighton contends that the Town was required, as a matter of law, to prove that it holds current title to the property at issue in the forcible entry and detainer action.

[¶2] Because the Town produced evidence that it held title superior to Leigh-[850]*850ton by virtue of the 1991 statutorily-foreclosed tax lien mortgage on the property, the Town presented sufficient evidence that it was entitled to possession in the forcible entry and detainer action. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.

I. CASE HISTORY

[¶ 8] The record indicates the following case history, most of which is not disputed. Dorothy Leighton has been residing in the property located at 8 Mill Pond Lane (the Property) in Blue Hill. Leighton has not paid any taxes on the Property since at least 1991. On August 21, 1991, the town of Blue Hill recorded a tax collector’s lien certificate pursuant to 36 M.R.S.A. § 942 (1990) and § 943 (1990 & Pamph.1992), naming Leighton as the Property owner. Leighton did not pay any of the outstanding property taxes, the statutory eighteen-month period of redemption closed, and the lien was foreclosed upon pursuant to statute in early 1993. The Town did not then seek to take possession and remove Leighton from the Property.1 The Town continued to send Leighton tax assessments annually, and copies of new tax lien certificates for the unpaid taxes, until at least 1997.2

[¶ 4] In June 2010, after serving Leigh-ton with a notice to vacate the Property, the Town filed a complaint against Leigh-ton for forcible entry and detainer (FED) pursuant to 14 M.R.S. § 6001(1) (2010), seeking possession of the Property and costs. On July 19, 2010, the District Court held a hearing after which it entered a judgment in Leighton’s favor. The court issued written findings, the last of which was that the Town’s having continued to assess Leighton for taxes until at least 1997 and to send her copies of lien certificates for the delinquent taxes “could be deemed a waiver of its right to foreclose upon the lien noted above and therefore there is an issue of whether the Town actually owns the property.”

[¶ 5] The Town filed a motion to alter or amend the judgment and for reconsideration pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 59(e), which the court denied.3 The Town filed an appeal to the Superior Court pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 80D(f)(l), challenging both the District Court’s July 19, 2010, judgment and its subsequent denial of the Town’s motion to alter or amend the judgment.

[¶ 6] The Superior Court, applying Dolloff v. Gardiner, 148 Me. 176, 91 A.2d [851]*851320 (1952), vacated the District Court’s judgment and remanded the matter to the District Court with instructions to issue a writ of possession in favor of the Town. Leighton timely appealed from the Superi- or Court’s judgment.

II. LEGAL ANALYSIS

[¶ 7] When, as here, the Superior Court acts as an intermediate appellate court, and not through an appeal for a jury trial de novo, see M.R. Civ. P. 80D(f)(2), we review directly the District Court’s judgment for errors of law. Union River Assocs. v. Budman, 2004 ME 48, ¶ 8 & n. 2, 850 A.2d 334; M.R. Civ. P. 80D(f)(1), (2)(A).

[¶ 8] A forcible entry and de-tainer claim is a statutory action. 14 M.R.S. §§ 6001-6016 (2010). It is “a summary proceeding to decide who is entitled to the immediate possession of land.” Town of Pownal v. Anderson, 1999 ME 70, ¶ 5, 728 A.2d 1254; Tozier v. Tozier, 437 A.2d 645, 647 (Me.1981). Although resolution of the issue of possession sometimes turns on a determination as to who holds title to the property, an FED action “is not a plenary action to quiet title to land.” Tozier, 437 A.2d at 647.4

[¶9] The issue to be resolved in this FED action is whether the Town met its burden of showing that it holds title superior to Leighton and, therefore, has shown that it was entitled to immediate possession of the Property. See Frost Vacationland Props., Inc. v. Palmer, 1999 ME 15, ¶ 8, 723 A.2d 418 (stating that a court’s adjudication as to title relates only to the question of which of the parties to the action may have superior title to provide a basis for determining which party has the right to immediate possession).

[¶ 10] A party seeking possession of real property to the exclusion of another in an FED action must allege and prove sufficient facts to bring itself within the terms and conditions of 14 M.R.S. § 6001. Rubin v. Josephson, 478 A.2d 665, 667 (Me.1984). Neither section 6001 nor the succeeding sections of the FED statute, 14 M.R.S. §§ 6002-6014 (2010), to the extent they apply, address the plaintiffs burden of production and proof. Our opinions applying the FED statute and the tax lien mortgage provisions at 36 M.R.S.A. §§ 942-943 as they existed in 1991 to 1993 support the conclusion that, once a plaintiff makes a prima facie showing of title pursuant to 36 M.R.S.A. § 943, the burden is on the opposing party to rebut that showing. See Gray v. Hutchins, 150 Me. 96, 104, 104 A.2d 423 (1954) (holding that, having raised the question of title, the defendant failed to show a better title than that of the plaintiff, and additionally, the evidence did not overcome the statutory “prima facie effect of the recorded lien certifícate”); see also Town of Pownal, 1999 ME 70, ¶¶ 5, 10, 11, 728 A.2d 1254.

[¶ 11] Here, the Town met its burden of showing that it acquired title to the Property through its compliance with the provisions of 36 M.R.S.A. § 942 in recording the 1991 tax lien certificate and by operation of 36 M.R.S.A. § 943. The evidence supports a determination, and Leighton does not dispute, that the Town properly recorded a tax lien certificate on the Property in 1991, creating a tax lien mortgage on the Property, and that Leigh-ton failed to exercise her right of redemption within the eighteen-month period following the recording of that tax lien. See 36 M.R.S.A. § 943. By operation of statu[852]*852tory law, Leighton’s right of redemption then expired, the tax lien mortgage was foreclosed, and the Town became the title owner of the Property. See id.

[¶ 12] Upon expiration of the redemption period in February 1998, the tax lien mortgage became “prima facie evidence in all courts in all proceedings by and against the municipality ... of the title of the municipality to the real estate therein described.”5 36 M.R.S.A. § 943; accord Ly v. Lafortune, 2003 ME 119, ¶ 5, 832 A.2d 757 (“[Sections 942 and 943] vest full title in the municipality when the redemption period expires.”); Gray, 150 Me. at 99-100, 104 A.2d 423;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2011 ME 103, 30 A.3d 848, 2011 Me. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/town-of-blue-hill-v-leighton-me-2011.