Case ID: minn_169/html/0472-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Horn, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

IN RE APPLICATION OF MACKENZIE B. JAMIESON.
    
    January 7, 1927.
    No. 25,721.
    When owner of tax title is not entitled to apply for Torrens certificate of registration.
    The owner of a tax title who cannot claim 15 years adverse possession and whose tax title has not been adjudged valid is not entitled under G. S. 1923, § 8316, of the Torrens Act, to apply for a certificate of registration and the cancelation of an existing certificate of title.
    Records, 34 Cyc. p. 603 n. 24.
    Mackenzie B. Jamieson appealed from an order of the district court for Ramsey county, Bechhoefer, J., denying his application for the issuance to him of a certificate of title to certain land.
    Affirmed.
    
      Eermon W. Phillips, for appellant.
    
      McNeil Y. Seymour, for respondent.
    
      
       Reported in 211 N. W. 686.
    
   Horn, J.

The appeal is from an order denying appellant’s application for the issuance to him of a certificate of title under the so-called Torrens system to certain land.

A certificate of registration was issued to Tracy H. Hoyt, tbe owner, in 1913, wbo appears still of record as sucb owner. In May, 1919, the land was sold at a forfeited tax sale to tbe applicant, who in August, 1925, gave due notice of tbe expiration of redemption. No redemption was made. And under G. S. 1923, § 8316, tbe applicant claims tbe right to register tbe title thus derived. Tbe court was of tbe opinion that, before sucb an application could be made, tbe validity of tbe tax title must have been established by an ordinary action, as provided by G. S. 1923, § 8250. Tbe correctness of this ruling presents tbe sole question on this appeal.

Tbe registering of title is wholly a statutory procedure authorized and regulated by G. S. 1923, §§ 8247 to 8329. Section 8250 provides: “No land, tbe title to which is derived from any tax or local assessment sale, shall be registered until sucb title has been adjudged to be valid by a court of competent jurisdiction, and a certified copy of tbe decree duly recorded with tbe register of deeds: Provided, however, that any person may make tbe application when for at least fifteen years tbe land has been in tbe adverse possession of tbe applicant or those through whom be claims title.” Appellant could not and did not attempt to bring himself within tbe proviso. But be claims § 8316 gives him tbe right to register bis tax title without prior adjudication of its validity. It reads: “Any person claiming any right, title, or interest in registered land adverse to tbe registered owner thereof arising subsequent to tbe date of tbe original registration may, if no other provision is made in this chapter for registering tbe same, file with tbe registrar bis verified statement in writing setting forth fully bis alleged right or interest, and bow” etc. Tbe provision quoted from § 8250, as well as tbe quotation from § 8316, was in tbe original Torrens Act. When therefore § 8316 speaks of subsequent adverse claims which may be registered, it in terms excludes those for which other provisions are made, and tax titles are covered expressly by the previous § 8250. If tbe legislature bad reasons for withholding tbe right of a tax title owner from applying for a certificate of registration of sucb title until its validity was adjudged, tbe same reasons apply to obtaining such a certificate as against one who already holds a prior adverse certificate. In statutory actions to determine adverse claims open to a tax title owner, unknown persons may be made parties and barred of adverse claims. G. S. 1923, § 9557. There are no provisions looking to that end in the Torrens procedure provided by and under said § 8316.

Construing the two sections quoted from as component parts of one enactment, we think it clear that one claiming under a tax title adversely to the holder of a certificate of title under the Torrens Act cannot apply for a certificate thereon and for cancelation of the prior registration, under § 8316, until his tax title has first been adjudged valid. Neither prior decisions nor other sections than the two quoted from have any bearing on the point here presented.

The order is affirmed.

Stone, J.,- took no part.