2023 Code of Alabama › Title 9 - Conservation and Natural Resources. › Chapter 9 - Water Management and Drainage. › Article 1 - Water Management Districts. › Section 9-9-40 - Bonds - Remedies and Proceedings Upon Default.

Section 9-9-40
Bonds - Remedies and proceedings upon default.
(a) If any installment of principal and interest evidenced by any bonds issued under the provisions of this article shall not be paid at the time and in the manner when the same shall become due and payable, the same shall bear interest at the rate of eight percent per annum until paid, and if such default shall continue for a period of 60 days, the holder or holders of such bond or bonds upon which default has been made may have a right of action against said water management district wherein the court may issue a writ of mandamus against the officers of said district, including the tax collector, directing the levying of a sufficient tax as provided in this article and the collection of same in such sum as may be necessary to meet any unpaid installments of principal and interest and costs of suit and such other remedies are hereby vested in the holder or holders of such bond or bonds in default as may be authorized by law. As an additional remedy in case of default in the payment of the principal and interest of any bonds heretofore or hereafter issued by any water management district within the State of Alabama, which default has existed for 60 days and payment has been demanded by the holder of any such bond or interest coupon at the place designated for payment in such instruments and also to the president of the board of water management commissioners of any such water management district, the holder or holders of such bonds or interest coupons shall have the right to make application to any court of competent jurisdiction for the appointment of a receiver for such defaulting water management district, and it shall be the duty of said court upon presentation of a complaint properly verified to appoint a receiver in such case to collect any taxes due such district. Such receiver shall have power to institute civil actions for the collection of delinquent taxes and to do all things necessary to collect delinquent taxes or other debts due the district, and the said receiver may be directed by civil action to foreclose the lien of said taxes on said lands, and out of the proceeds of any collections so made the receiver shall first pay all costs and shall prorate the remainder of such collections to the payment of bonds and coupons then due, and said receiver shall be under the jurisdiction and control of the court appointing him and he shall have power to proceed in any court of competent jurisdiction where it is necessary to enforce any lien against any land within the district; and said court shall have the power to discharge said receiver at any time and appoint another in his stead, and when all bonds and interest coupons past due shall have been paid the receiver shall be discharged.
(b) Civil actions for the foreclosure of taxes by any receiver appointed under this section shall be conducted in the following manner: Such actions shall be brought in the circuit court of the county in which the lands are situated, and the said court shall give judgment against all of such lands or other property in said district for the amount of such taxes together with all interest and penalties accrued thereon and costs. Such judgment shall provide for the sale of such delinquent lands for cash in the same manner as other judicial sales of land. Said proceedings and judgment shall be in the nature of proceedings in rem, and it shall be immaterial that the ownership of such lands be incorrectly alleged in said proceedings, and such judgment shall be enforced wholly against such lands and not against any other property or estate of the defendants. All or any part of said delinquent lands for each of said counties may be included in one civil action for each county, instituted for the collection of said delinquent taxes, etc., as aforesaid, and notice of the pendency of such civil action shall be given by publication weekly for four weeks (four insertions) before judgment is entered for the sale of said lands in some newspaper published in the county where such suits may be pending if there is one and, if there is no such newspaper, then in some newspaper in an adjoining county, which public notice may be in the following terms:
"Receiver for _____ Water Management District vs. Delinquent Lands. All persons having or claiming any interest in any of the following described lands are hereby notified that a civil action is pending in the Circuit Court of _____ County, Alabama, to enforce the collection of certain water management taxes on the subjoined list of lands, the name of each supposed owner having been set opposite his or her or its lands together with the amounts severally due from each:" (Then shall follow a list of supposed owners, with a descriptive list of said delinquent lands and amounts due thereon respectively, as aforesaid, and said public notice may conclude in the following form:) "All persons and corporations interested in said lands are hereby notified that they are required by law to appear within four weeks and make defense of said action or the same will be taken as confessed, and final judgment will be entered directing the sale of said lands for the purpose of collecting said taxes together with interest, penalty and costs allowed by law."
Such civil actions shall stand for trial at the first term of court after the complaint shall have been filed, if said four weeks shall expire either before the first day of the term or during the term of court to which said actions are brought respectively, unless a continuance shall be granted for good cause shown, within the discretion of the court, and such continuance for good cause shown may be granted as to a part of said lands of defendants without effecting the duty of the court to dispose finally of the others as to whom no continuance may be granted; and in all cases where notice has been properly given as aforesaid and where no answer has been filed or if filed and the cause decided for the plaintiff, the court by its judgment shall grant the relief as prayed for in the complaint and shall direct the sale of such lands described in the complaint at the courthouse door of the county wherein the judgment is entered at public outcry to the highest and best bidder for cash in hand, after having first advertised such sales (such advertisement may include all the land included in the judgment) weekly for two weeks consecutively, (two insertions) in some newspaper published in the county if there is one and, if there is no such newspaper, then such advertisement shall be published in some newspaper in an adjoining county, and if all the lands are not sold on the day as advertised, such sale shall continue from day to day until completed. The register shall by proper deeds convey to the purchaser the lands so sold, and the title to said lands shall thereupon become vested in such purchaser as against all others whomsoever, subject only to the right of the owner of said land to redeem same within two years from the date of said sale, on payment of the amount paid by the purchaser of said land with legal interest thereon to the date of redemption and also the further sum equal to 10 percent of the amount so paid by the purchaser of said land. The purchaser of any land at such sale shall be entitled to the possession of such land immediately upon the delivery to him of the deed thereof; provided, that if such land, being agricultural land, shall have been leased by the owner and the tenant shall have planted a crop thereon prior to such sale, such tenant shall have the right to till and gather his crop.
(c) The receiver may proceed by civil action as aforesaid against any such delinquent lands before the sale thereof by the collector or after such sale but for which no purchaser was found; and it shall be the duty of such receiver to deliver to the collector a copy of the complaint against such delinquent lands, and such lands shall thereafter not be offered for sale by the collector until such delinquent lands shall have been sold under the foreclosure provided for in this section or the judgment against the same otherwise satisfied or the foreclosure action against such lands otherwise finally disposed of. It shall be the duty of such receiver, as such land is sold or judgment against the same otherwise satisfied, to furnish the collector with a list of such lands, and the collector shall then record the satisfaction of such tax in the water management tax book for the proper year; provided, that it shall be the duty of the collector thereafter to sell any such lands at the time and in the manner provided by this article for delinquent water management taxes for any year subsequent to the taxes for which judgment was rendered against such lands; provided further, that the sale of any lands for water management taxes under this article shall only discharge such lands from the lien of the taxes for which judgment was rendered or the sale made.
(Acts 1965, No. 685, p. 1246, §33.)