Opinion ID: 1236340
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sheriff's Duties Under the Statute

Text: The Legislature has described the process whereby the state may sell property for non-payment of taxes in W. Va.Code § 11A-3-1, et seq. (1994). The drafters of this chapter divided it into three parts: Part I [19] explains the duties of a sheriff, Part II [20] sets forth the duties of the Auditor, and Part III [21] deals with several miscellaneous provisions. The Code requires a sheriff to publish a list of properties on which the taxes are delinquent and to send a notice of delinquency to certain parties. Specifically, (a) On or before the tenth day of September of each year, the sheriff shall prepare a second list of delinquent lands, which shall include all real estate in his county remaining delinquent as of the first day of September, together with a notice of sale, in form or effect as follows: [description of required form omitted].... The sheriff shall publish the list and notice prior to the sale date fixed in the notice as a Class III-0 legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for such publication shall be the county. (b) In addition to such publication, no less than thirty days prior to the sale the sheriff shall send a notice of such delinquency and the date of sale by certified mail: (1) To the last known address of each person listed in the land books whose taxes are delinquent; (2) to each person having a lien on real property upon which the taxes are due as disclosed by a statement filed with the sheriff pursuant to the provisions of section three of this article; (3) to each other person with an interest in the property or with a fiduciary relationship to a person with an interest in the property who has in writing delivered to the sheriff on a form prescribed by the tax commissioner a request for such notice of delinquency; and (4) in the case of property which includes a mineral interest [which does not apply in this case].... W. Va.Code § 11A-3-2 (1995). [22] Essentially a sheriff must publish a notice in the paper, and must mail a notice to parties with an interest of record, or to parties who have, in the prescribed manner notified the sheriff of their interest in a given property. As we discuss below, these obligations of a sheriff do not apply to the Auditor, who has his own statutory obligations. Also, nothing in the record suggests that the Redevelopment Authority complied with any of the conditions of W. Va.Code § 11A-3-2 (1995), quoted above. Although the Redevelopment Authority did serve the Sheriff with a copy of the original complaint from the condemnation action (and the record suggests that this may have been filed after the attempted sale had already occurred) [23] there is no evidence that the Redevelopment Authority attempted to use the statutorily mandated methods of providing notice to the Sheriff of its alleged interest in the Green Property. We agree with the Auditor that the lower court erred in applying the requirements of W. Va.Code § 11A-3-2 (1995) to the Auditor or his agents. While we in no way intend to weaken the due process protections provided by Lilly v. Duke, supra , we note that, in addition to the fact that the Authority did not follow the statute and provide proper notice to the Sheriff, in this particular case the Redevelopment Authority was not prejudiced by any lack of notice of the sheriff's sale. Indeed, the Sheriff never sold the property, but rather certified it to the Auditor. Moreover, as the lower court's order points out, the Redevelopment Authority had several communications with the Auditors's office that revealed: that the taxes were delinquent, that the property was potentially subject to a sale by the Auditor, and that by paying a certain amount by a certain date any liens could easily be removed. It is obvious that responsible persons acting on behalf of the Redevelopment Authority had actual notice of the status of the proceeding to collect delinquent taxes on the property. B.