Zerbe Township School District v. Lark

60 Pa. D. & C. 611, 1946 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 94

This text of 60 Pa. D. & C. 611 (Zerbe Township School District v. Lark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northumberland County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zerbe Township School District v. Lark, 60 Pa. D. & C. 611, 1946 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 94 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1946).

Opinion

Larrabee, P. J.

(twenty-ninth judicial district), specially presiding,

Nell Frantz presented her petition, through Arthur B. Shutts, whom she avers is her legally constituted attorney in fact, in which she sets forth that on September 14, 1945, and for a period thereafter she was the owner and in possession of certain tracts of land, situate in Zerbe Township, Northumberland County: . . .

That she was not named as a party defendant to these proceedings when plaintiffs’ bill in equity was filed on September 14, 1945, and therefore was not [612]*612served with process and that no claim has been asserted against her in plaintiffs’ bill. She further recites that plaintiffs do not aver in their bill that she committed or threatened to commit any acts of waste on said lands.

Petitioner avers that the above-described lands were purchased by the County Commissioners of Northumberland County at county treasurer’s sale on April 29,1943, and January 25,1945, and the commissioners did not acquire a valid title to said lands by reason of the aforesaid tax sales, and she asks that the county commissioners be required and directed to institute an action in ejectment against her to try the title and right of possession to said lands.

Petitioner requests that she first be given an opportunity to try the title to the above described tracts of land and that any mining on said tracts by the receiver should be discontinued until the question of title can be determined. She also avers she was ousted from the possession of said lands by the receiver on or after September 14, 1945.

Wherefore petitioner asks that she be allowed to intervene in this proceeding for the purpose of filing this petition of record and for an order of court directing the receiver to cease mining upon lands or in any way interfering therewith until the right of the county commissioners or the receiver to enter upon said lands has been adjudicated by a proper action in ejectment.

A rule was granted upon Edward J. O’Rourke, the receiver, to show cause why he should not be directed to cease mining coal upon said lands until the right of the county commissioners, or the receiver, to enter upon said lands has been duly adjudicated by an action of ejectment, and that the said Nell Frantz be placed in possession of said lands forthwith.

An answer was filed by the receiver, respondent in the rule, in which he denied that on September 14, [613]*6131945, when plaintiffs’ original bill in equity was filed, Nell Frantz was the owner of any of the aforesaid lands as claimed in her petition; he avers that the Commissioners of Northumberland County purchased at county treasurer’s sale on April 29,1943, for unpaid taxes: (a) 91 acres, being part of the 105-acre tract described in said petition, and (c) 812.2 acres described in the petition, and that deeds for these tracts and portions of said tracts were delivered by the Treas-surer of Northumberland County to the commissioners of said county, duly acknowledged, and recorded on September 2,1943, in county treasurer’s deed book; that the statutory period of two years for the redemption of said lands expired on April 29, 1945, and these lands were not redeemed then or at any time since, and, therefore, the County of Northumberland is now the absolute owner of these portions of said lands above described.

Respondent further answers that the County Treasurer of Northumberland County sold to the commissioners of said county, for unpaid taxes, on January 25,1945, the remainder of said tracts of land described in the petition for the rule; that deeds for said remaining parts of these tracts were delivered by the Treasurer of Northumberland County to the commissioners of the county, duly acknowledged on June 25,1945, and recorded on September 25, 1945, in the office of the prothonotary in treasurer’s deed book no. 1944, and that continuously down to the time of filing said answer the remaining parts of these lands have not been redeemed and therefore the County of Northumberland remains the conditional owner thereof until the end of the two-year statutory period for redemption from the date of said treasurer’s sale on January 25, 1945.

Respondent avers that petitioner has no standing in law to complain of the mining on said last-mentioned tracts by the receiver as long as the title, even though [614]*614it be a conditional title, as to these parts of the lands, remains in the County of Northumberland.

Respondent avers that waste was being committed on said lands on or about September 14, 1945, and for some time prior thereto.

Respondent also avers that Nell Frantz was not ousted by him from said lands but, on the contrary, she never went into possession of the same.

Respondent admits that Nell Frantz was not named as a party defendant in the original bill in equity but by order of court made on March 19, 1946, she was permitted to become a party thereto by intervening in this proceeding; that all the tracts of land set forth in the second paragraph of the petition for the rule were also set forth and described in the original bill in equity and were, therefore, included in the order of court of September 14, 1945, when an injunction was issued to restrain waste and a receiver was appointed.

Respondent further answers that the said Nell Frantz never paid any taxes on said lands since she received the title deed to the same. Respondent also avers that on September 14,1945, when said injunction was issued restraining waste, Nell Frantz had no title to said lands and was not in possession of the same.

Lastly, respondent avers that said county treasurer’s tax sales were legally held and by virtue thereof title to said lands passed to the Commissioners of Northumberland County and they are now the owner of these lands; that there is nothing to prevent Nell Frantz from bringing an action of ejectment against the county commissioners to try the title to said lands if she so desires; and respondent, as receiver, has given a corporate surety bond in a sum adequate to cover all moneys coming into his hands as royalties received from coal mined under his direction.

[615]*615 Findings of fact

1. The court finds from the testimony adduced at the hearing, that petitioner, Nell Frantz, was not in possession of the said lands, described in the second paragraph of her petition, either actually or constructively, on September 14, 1945, nor at any time since down to the filing of her said petition for the rule.

2. By deed bearing date of August 8, 1940, one Mary Jane Buckley conveyed to Nell Frantz, petitioner herein, title to the three tracts described in the second paragraph of the petition for the rule and comprising upwards of 1,000 acres of coal lands.

3. The amount of consideration or purchase price actually paid by Nell Frantz for these three tracts of land was $1.

4. The deed conveying title to Nell Frantz to the three tracts of land was placed on record March 9, 1943, three years after it was executed and delivered to her.

5. Nell Frantz has never paid any taxes whatsoever on these tracts from the time she took title to them.

6. The unpaid taxes assessed and charged against the aforesaid lands amount to upwards of $300,000.

7.

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Bluebook (online)
60 Pa. D. & C. 611, 1946 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zerbe-township-school-district-v-lark-pactcomplnorthu-1946.