Fortmann v. Wheeler

This was an action of ejectment to recover possession of lands in the city of Brooklyn, described as lot 21, in block 155, on the assessment map of the twenty-fourth ward, for unpaid taxes. The land was sold under the arrears act (chapter 114, Laws 1883), and purchased by the plaintiff by a deed executed by the mayor and comptroller of the city on December 12, 1892. The plaintiff to establish his title, introduced in evidence a deed from the registrar of arrears to the city, dated March 24, 1892, and a deed from the mayor and comptroller of the city to himself, dated December 12, 1892, and rested his case. The de

The last proposition was decided adversely to the appellants’' contention in Jackson v. Kane, 1 Johns. Cas. 153 ; Jackson v. Graham, 3 Caines, Cas. 188 ; Hubbell v. Weldon, Lalor, Supp. 139. In those'cases it was held that, under a valid tax sale or sale on execution, the owners or occupants would, after the sale,, be regarded as holding in subordination to the title of the purchaser. The mere fact that a party is in possession, and asserts an adverse claim, does not render a deed void. The claim must be under some specific title. Crary v. Goodman, 22 N. Y. 170 . The only title which the appellants had was that derived under the will of Nancy B. Wheeler. But that was the same title which the plaintiff had purchased. The parties did not, therefore,' claim under adverse titles, but both claimed the same title, and, if the proceedings in reference to the tax wére valid, that title was vested in the plaintiff, ’and appellant’s possession was subordinate to it. The arrears act provided that a purchaser at the tax sale “shall take a good and sufficient title in fee simple absolute to the property sold, of which the said deed shall be presumptive evidence.” Laws 1885, c. 163, § 1. The legislature had the right to give this character, as evidence, to the deed. Curtiss v. Follett, 15 Barb. 337 -343 ; Johnson v. Elwood, 53 N. Y. 431 -435. The burden of disproving the authority of the registrar of arrears to deliver the deed was therefore upon the appellants.

The provision in the arrears act does not differ in substance from that contained in the act of 1850 (chapter 183), or in the act of 1855 (chapter 427), or the act of 1893 (chapter 711). The title conveyed by a deed from the comptroller of the-state for land sold for taxes is now, by the latter act, declared to be “an absolute estate in fee simple,” subject only to claims of the state for taxes, and the deed is made “presumptive evidence that the sale and all proceedings prior thereto, from and including the assessment of the lands sold and that all notices required by law to be given previous to the expiration of time allowed by law for the redemption thereof, were regular and in accordance with the provisions of law relating thereto.” Statutory provisions of this character, making tax deeds presumptive evidence of the validity of the purchaser’s title, have uniformly been held valid. See Black, Tax Titles, c. 33, and cases cited.

The point that it was incumbent on the plaintiff to prove the authority of the city to purchase- the land cannot -be sustained. Such authority, made dependent, as it was, upon the determina

The judgment must be affirmed with costs.

All concur.