Opinion ID: 1587952
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Vitality of Alwani in Light of Dawson and Delta Property Management

Text: The Second District in Alwani viewed the due process requirements of United States Supreme Court precedent too narrowly. In addition to distinguishing Mullane and its progeny, the Second District based its decision in Alwani on three grounds: (1) titleholders have a legal obligation under section 197.332, Florida Statutes (1987), to pay ad valorem taxes before they become delinquent and are aware that there are consequences for their failure to do so; (2) lack of notice is not one of the grounds for challenging the validity of a tax deed under section 197.404, Florida Statutes (1987) [6] ; and (3) a requirement that the clerk of court must look beyond the tax collector's statement to ascertain the titleholder's current address would create an intolerable burden on the clerk and would result in the clerk acting without legal authority. See 540 So.2d at 909-10. Through our opinions in Dawson and Delta Property Management, both of which were issued after Alwani was decided, we have rejected each of the three grounds for the Second District's decision in Alwani. In Dawson, we explicitly rejected the assertion that the duty imposed by section 197.332 upon owners of real property in Florida relieves the state of its obligation to inform interested parties of a tax deed sale. See 608 So.2d at 810. Relying on the United States Supreme Court's decision in Mennonite Board of Missions, we explained that [w]hile we agree that all taxpayers are under an obligation to know the status of their property, ` knowledge of delinquency in the payment of taxes is not equivalent to notice that a tax sale is pending. ' Id. (emphasis supplied) (quoting Mennonite Bd. of Missions, 462 U.S. at 800, 103 S.Ct. 2706). In addition, as discussed more fully above, we disagreed with the contention that section 197.404 superseded section 197.522 and thereby precluded a titleholder from challenging the validity of a tax deed based on lack of notice. See Dawson, 608 So.2d at 809. We determined in Dawson that although section 197.404 did not contain an exception for lack of notice, a titleholder may challenge the validity of a tax deed on this ground. See 608 So.2d at 809. We recently rejected the remaining basis underlying Alwani when we concluded in Delta Property Management that under certain circumstances, the clerk of court has a duty to go beyond the tax collector's statement to ascertain the titleholder's correct address prior to mailing notice of a tax deed sale as required by section 197.522(1)(a). See 875 So.2d at 443-44, 448. In Delta Property Management, this Court addressed whether, under chapter 197 of the Florida Statutes, the clerk of the circuit court must verify the legal titleholder's address prior to mailing the notice of the tax deed sale to that titleholder if the tax assessment roll has been or should have been updated after the tax collector provided the clerk with the tax collector's statement. 875 So.2d at 445. In that case, the clerk of court prepared the statutory notice of the tax deed sale more than three months after the clerk of court received the tax collector's statement, specifying the address of the titleholder as a party entitled to notice. See id. at 444. The titleholder allegedly notified the tax collector of its change of address five months before the tax collector delivered to the clerk of court the statement required by section 197.502(4)(a). See id. at 444 n. 4. The statement did not reflect the change of address. As a result, the tax collector's statement listed the titleholder's previous address as it was contained in the 1999 tax assessment roll. See id. at 444. However, by the time the clerk of court prepared and mailed the notice to the titleholder, the latest tax assessment roll was, presumptively, the 2000 roll, not the 1999 version the tax collector relied upon in preparing the statement under section 197.502(4)(a). See id. at 447. Because the clerk of court relied solely on the address provided in the tax collector's statement without determining whether the 2000 roll was available, the titleholder did not receive notice of the tax deed sale. See id. at 445. We held that based on these circumstances, the clerk of the circuit court, when mailing the notice of a tax deed sale to the titleholder of the affected property, must mail the notice to the address of the titleholder as listed in the latest tax assessment roll. If the tax assessment roll is updated after the clerk receives a statement from the tax collector but prior to mailing the notice to the titleholder, the clerk must look at the new assessment roll to see if the titleholder's address has changed and, if the clerk finds that the address has changed, the clerk must mail the notice to the new address listed in the latest assessment roll. Id. at 443-44. We noted that to hold otherwise would deny a titleholder his or her property without due process of law. See id. at 447. We explained that [w]hile the clerk should use the tax collector's statement when preparing the tax sale notices, circumstances may warrant some additional action by the clerk because `[t]here could come a point in time when the tax collector's statement no longer represents those who are entitled to notice.' Id. at 448 (quoting Baron v. Rhett, 847 So.2d 1032, 1035 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)).