Case Name: Watson v. Campbell
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1892-05-07
Citations: 56 Ark. 184
Docket Number: 
Parties: Watson v. Campbell.
Judges: 
Reporter: Arkansas Reports
Volume: 56
Pages: 184–187

Head Matter:
Watson v. Campbell.
Opinion delivered May 7, 1892.
Tax sale — Return of assessment.
A sale of land for the taxes of 1883 is void where the assessment list for that year was filed on June 20, 1883, instead of on June 19, as required by statute.
Appeal from Woodruff Circuit Court in Chancery.
Matthew T. Sanders, Judge.
J. N. Cyfieri for appellant.
The assessor filed his assessment list on the 20th of June, 1883, when it should have been filed by the first Monday in June. Mans. Dig. sec. 5676.
House •& Cantrell for appellee.
The assessment list was not returned until June 20, 1883. The law required it to be returned on or before the first Monday in June. This was a mere duty imposed on the assessor by law, the non-observance of which did not deprive the owner of any right, and he cannot complain. 46 Ark. 96. Such irregularities are cured by statute. Mansf. Dig. sec. 5791.

Opinion:
Hughes, J.
This is a suit brought by the appellee to recover possession of land upon a deed made to the appellee by the Commissioner of State Hands, dated January 24, 1888. The cause was transferred to equity. The appellant answered and attacked the deed of the appellee, which was founded upon the forfeiture of the land to the State for the non-payment of taxes due thereon for the taxes of 1884.
By act of March 5, 1885, the payment of taxes for the year 1884 had been extended. The forfeiture was made therefore upon the assessment for 1883, which was returned to the clerk's office and filed on the 20th of June, 1883, whereas it should have been returned to and filed in the clerk's office by the first Monday in June, as the law then required.
Opinion delivered May 21, 1892.
The failure to return the assessment to the clerk's office was prejudicial to the owner of the land. The board of equalization of real property was then required by law to meet on the first Monday in June, and it might continue in session two weeks, but could not continue longer than two weeks in session. Any party aggrieved by any action of the board of equalization might appeal therefrom to the county court. The session of the board of equalization had ended, by limitation of law, in 1883, before the assessment was returned. The tax-payer's rig'ht of appeal from any action of the board was therefore cut off by the failure to return the assessment list in time. Sections 5687, 5688, Mansfield's Digest; Cooley on Taxation, 366. " The tax-payer ought always to be at liberty to insist that directions which the law has given to its officers for his benefit shall be observed." In such cases the law is mandatory, as it is generally expressed.
For the failure to return the assessment list of 1883 within the time required by law, the forfeiture was void, and the deed thereon is void. The finding and judgment of the circuit court should have been for the defendant (appellant here). The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded for judgment in accordance with this opinion, after allowing the appellee for taxes paid by him.