Case ID: iowa_65/html/0434-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Rothrock, Ch. J.\n     Reed, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Heaton v. Knight et al.
    1. Tax Sale and Deed: notice to redeem: person to whom land is taxed: statute construed. When the person to whom land is to bo taxed has been ascertained and made of record by the assessor, and liis book has been returned to the county auditor, the land is to bo regarded as taxed to that person, within the meaning of section 894 of the Code, and from the time of the assessor’s return until the tax dupli'cate is delivered to the treasurer, the auditor’s office is the place to learn to whom the land is taxed; and the person to whom the land is thus taxed is entitled to the notice to redeem provided by said section. Until the assessor’s return is made, the land is to be presumed to be taxed to the same person as the year before. Original opinion, 63 Iowa, 686, adhered to. Reed and Adams, J J., dissenting.
    
    
      Appeal from Madison District Court.
    
    Friday, December 12.
    
      Ruby (& Wilkin, for appellants.
    
      MoCaughan c& Dabney, for appellee.
   OPINION ON REHEARING.

Rothrock, Ch. J.

A petition for rehearing was entertained in this case, because some of the members of the court were inclined to doubt the correctness of the principal point in the original opinion. (63 Iowa, 686.) The question has been fully argued upon the rehearing, and the whole record has been again examined by the court, and in the light of the reargument we adhere to the opinion already filed; and we do not deem it necessary to elaborate the discussion of the question further than to say that, the object of the law being to give notice to the owner of the land, it is the duty of the purchaser to examine the records and ascertain in whose name the land is taxed. This record is to be found in the auditor’s office long after the levy of the taxes by the board of supervisors, and until the tax-books are placed in the hands of the treasurer. The name of the person to whom land is to be taxed is ascertained and made of record by the assessor, and is to be found' in the auditor’s office, and, from the time of the return of the assessor until the tax dujxLicate is delivered to the treasurer, the auditor’s office is the place where the information upon which to base the notice may be found. If we were to take the phrase “ is taxed ” in its literal sense, there would be a time between the payment of the tax for one year and the levy of the tax for the next year when the land would not be taxed to any one, and we think it may be properly held that until the land is listed for taxation it may be said that it “is taxed” to the same person as in the previous year; but when it is listed for taxation in the name of another, we think from that time it may properly be said to be taxed to that person, in view of the object and intent of the statute.

The former opinion is adhered to, and the decision of the district court is

Affirmed.

Reed, J.,

dissenting. In my opinion the land was not taxed for the year in question until the tax for that year was levied by the board of supervisors.

Adams, J., concurs in this dissent.