Hyperlawhypertext legal database People ex rel. Witte v. Roberts 63 N.Y. St. Rep. 100

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People ex rel. Witte v. Roberts

63 N.Y. St. Rep. 100 Court N.Y. Decision date 1894-12-18 English

Contents

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p. 100
The People ex rel. William Witte, App’lt, v. James A. Roberts, as Comptroller, etc., Resp’t.
(Court of Appeals,
Mled December 18, 1894.)

Headnote

Taxes—Redemption.
An application, under the provisions of the Act of 1893, cannot be made by the owner of the land, at the time of the sale, but only by the purchaser at the sale.
Appeal from order of the general term of the supreme court in the third judicial department, which affirmed an order of the special term denying an application for a writ of mandamus against the comptroller of the state.
The relator was in 1874 the owner of a lot of land situate in the town of Flatbush, Kings county, and as such owner on the 12th day of December, 1874, duly paid the tax thereon for that year to the collector of the town. Notwithstanding such payment the tax was returned as unpaid by the collector through mistake, and at the tax sale in November, 1881, the lot was sold by the comptroller for the non-payment of that tax to the People of the state, who continued to hold the tax title until November 24th, 1891, when it was sold by the commissioners of the land office to Henrv Patten. The relator was ignorant of the return of the tax of 1874
p. 101
as unpaid, and of the tax sale of his lot until recently, when on examination of the title preparatory to a proposed conveyance by him these facts were disclosed through the records of the comptroller’s office. The relator then applied to the comptroller for a cancellation of the tax sale on the ground that the tax of 1874 had been legally paid. The comptroller denied the application, and then the relator applied at a special term of the supreme court for a peremptory writ of mandamus directed to the comptroller to compel him to cancel the tax, and the special term denied his application. . He then appealed to the general term, and from affirmance there to this court.
James F. Tracy, for app’lt; W. F. Kisselburgh, Jr., for resp’t.

Prior to 1891 various statutes in this state authorized the comptroller to cancel tax sales upon discovery that they were for any reason illegal or invalid. Those statutes did not specify the persons who could apply to the comptroller for such cancellations and invoke his action; Laws of 1828, chap. 26; 1 R. S. 413, §§ 89, 91; Laws of 1851, chap. 98, §§ 102, 104; Laws of 1855, chap. 427, §§ 83, 85. In People ex rel. Wright v. Chapin, 104 N. Y. 369 ; 6 St. Rep. 837 , we held that under the statutes then in force the application to the comptroller for the cancellation of the tax sale could only be made by the purchaser at the sale. Thereafter, by chapter 217 of the Laws of 1891, the previous statutes were amended by the following provision: “All applications heretofore or hereafter made to the comptroller for the cancellation of any tax sale, by any person interested in the event thereof, shall be heard and determined by him, and his determination shall be subject to review by certiorari or otherwise.” notwithstanding that amendment we again held in People ex rel. Hamilton Park Co. v. Wemple, 139 N. Y. 240 ; 54 St. Rep. 623 , that the application for cancellation could be made only by the purchaser, and that the owner had no standing whatever for that purpose. Before that decision was announced, and after the action of the comptroller there under review had been taken, the act chapter 711 of the Laws of 1893 had been passed, and in that act the language pertaining to the present inquiry is as follows: “ If he (the comptroller) shall not discover that the sale was invalid until after a conveyance of the lands sold shall have been _ executed, he shall, on application of any person having any interest therein at the time of the sale, on receiving proof thereof, cancel the sale, refund out of the state treasury to the purchaser, his representatives or assigns, the purchase money and interest thereon, and re-charge the county from which the tax was returned with the amount of purchase money and interest from the time of sale, which the county shall cause to be levied and paid into the state treasury ; .on any such application the comptroller may appoint a commissioner with like powers and duties as in case of amapplication for redemption,”

The present application is made under that act, and the claim of the relator is that under its phraseology, he, as owner of the lot at the time of the sale, can make the application.

p. 102
It is very clear that if, under the act, he, as owner, can make the application on the ground that he was interested in the land at the time of the sale, the purchaser at the sale cannot make the application, and that thus the entire policy of the state as to such applications which had existed l'or seventy years has been radically changed. If the legislature had intended to provide that the owner could make the application, we think in view of the prior decisions of this court that it wo'uld have so provided in plain terms. With the language as it now appears in the act we are quite unwilling to hold that the policy of the state has been changed, and that the effect of our prior decision has been subverted, We must adhere to those decisions until by satisfactory language the legislative intent to change the law so as to authorize the application for cancellation by the owner has been more plainly manifested.

The order of the general term should be affirmed, with costs.

All concur, except Earl, J., dissenting.

Order affirmed.

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