Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-04-06
Tax Sale Postponement.

An expectant assembly was on the court house steps yesterday morning at II o'clock, the time advertised for the tax sales to commence, several parties were on hand with money for speculat- i've purposes.
 Treasurer Johnson appeared at II o'clock and announced that law had been passed by the Eighteenth legisla- ture extending the time for sale to une 25th, 1895, of all property where the sale IS advertised to occur in March. Pima county's sale was advertired to occur on the first day of April, consequently was ] not within the strict wording of the stat ute, and if the stand was taken that Pima county had been left out, it made special legislation of the other counties and thus wiped out the law altogether. Under these conditions Treasurer John son asked the district attorneys opinion, which was favorable to postponemept of the sale to June 18th.
 The following IS Judge Lovelrs opin- ion:
 Royal A. Johnson, Treasurer of Pima
 county, Tucson, Arizona.
 DEAR SIR:-In reply to your commu- nicatlOn of this date, concerning the in- tended meaning and the construction to be placed upon council bill No. SS, passed by the last legislative assembly, l have to say that the arrangement and grammatical construction of the bill is exceedingly indefinite and unsatisfac- tory, but taking the whole bill together l think that it was the evident intent to postpone all sales for delinquent taxes for the year 1894, until the 25th day of | June 1895, in all of the counties of the | terrltu ;; otherwise the law would be | obnox .Ous to the provisions of the Har- | rison act, prohibiting special, or class | Legislation. The legislature could not | postpone the sale in some counties, with l out postponing it in ell. The law di- | reotlng the advertisement of delinquent | property for sale provides that oH or be- fore the first Monday in March, in each | } ear the tax collector must publish the delinquent list of the property, etc., to be sold; it also provides that the list must be published once week for three successive weeks Now the first Mon- day of March of the present year fell on the 4th day of the month. Doubtless many of the tax collectors of the terri tory made their first publication on or before that date, and ss the law pro- videe, (sec. I, act of April 13, 1S93), that the time of sale must not be less than 21 nor more than 2S days from the first pu publication, the legislature undoubtedly that ali of the sales advertised would, under the law, commence in the month of March of the present year, out such would not necessarily be the case. In your case, for instance, you made the first publication on Monday, he 4th of March. with a notice of sale sunexed, fixing MoL day, April 1st, as the day od which you would commence D king the sale. which would fall on the 18th day after the first publication, and which was within the time prescribed oy section of the act last referred to.
 For all of the foregoing reasons the evident and proper construction of the sct under consideration, to my mind, is hat 1t was the intention of the legisla- ure to extend the time of sales for del nquent taxes in all the counties of the territory. Any other construction would 'ender the whole act void.
 Very respectfully,
 WM M. LOWELL,
 District Attorney.