Title: Hart v. Catoe
Citation: 390 So. 2d 1001
Docket Number: 52244
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: December 3, 1980

390 So. 2d 1001 (1980) G.E. HART v. E.V. CATOE, Jr. et al. No. 52244. Supreme Court of Mississippi. December 3, 1980. J.B. Van Slyke, Jr., Pope &amp; Van Slyke, Hattiesburg, for appellant. F. Douglas Montague, III, Gray, Montague &amp; Pittman, Hattiesburg, for appellees. Before SMITH, P.J., and SUGG and LEE, JJ. *1002 LEE, Justice, for the Court: G.E. Hart filed suit in the Chancery Court of Forrest County against E.V. Catoe, Jr., to confirm title on a 40-acre tract of land situated in said county. Catoe filed an answer and cross-bill seeking cancellation of (1) a tax deed executed to Hart and (2) Hart's claim as a cloud on his title to the 40-acre tract. The lower court, Honorable Howard L. Patterson, Jr., presiding, entered a decree dismissing the original bill of complaint and cancelling the Hart deed and all claims he asserted on the land as a cloud on Catoe's title, and Hart has appealed. Appellant assigns three (3) errors in the trial below, but the sole question presented is whether or not the chancellor erred in holding that appellant did not satisfy the notice provisions of Mississippi Code Annotated Section 27-43-3 (1972), as amended. Appellee acquired the 40-acre tract of land in 1939. Each year thereafter, he wrote the tax assessor for tax statements and paid the ad valorem taxes due. Through some oversight or mistake, he failed to pay the 1975 taxes, although he continued to tender taxes as they became due in succeeding years. The land was sold to appellant for delinquent 1975 taxes on September 20, 1976. It was not redeemed within the statutory two-year period and title matured in appellant. On October 10, 1978, the chancery clerk executed and delivered to appellant a tax deed covering the land. This suit subsequently was filed by appellant to confirm the tax deed and to cancel claims asserted by appellee. Mississippi Code Annotated Section 27-43-3 (1972) provides for the giving of notice to a landowner before title to land sold at a tax sale matures in a purchaser. The section was amended, effective October 1, 1975, and the pertinent parts of the amended statute follow: An examination of the amended statute indicates that stringent requirements were placed upon the chancery clerk to notify a landowner of the tax sale and the fact that title to the land sold would mature in the purchaser on a certain date. Without detailing the acts of the chancery clerk in attempted compliance with the statute, to locate and notify appellee, it is uncontradicted that appellee's name and address appeared in the register of landowners maintained in the tax collector's office and it is undisputed that the chancery clerk failed to file the supporting affidavits required by the statute. The chancellor found and adjudicated the following: Appellant cites Rains v. Teague, 377 So. 2d 924 (Miss. 1979). However, that case is not authority for the question here, since it was decided under the 1972 section and before the 1975 amendment was enacted. The public policy of this state favors and protects owners of land from loss by its sale for taxes. Carmadelle v. Custin, 208 So. 2d 51 (Miss. 1968). 72 Am.Jur.2d State and Local Taxation § 1019, at 293 (1974) states the general law with reference to requirements of a statute such as Section 27-43-3 as follows: The statute involved here must be given a strict construction, and its requirements fully satisfied. Essential mandates of the statute were not followed and the failure so to do renders the tax deed to appellant void. The chancellor was eminently correct in cancelling same and the judgment of the lower court is affirmed. AFFIRMED. PATTERSON, C.J., SMITH and ROBERTSON, P. JJ., and SUGG, WALKER, BROOM, BOWLING and COFER, JJ., concur.