Opinion ID: 2402119
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Title to the Westerly Portion of Lot 10

Text: [¶ 16] Although neither party offered into evidence the crucial deed, that is, the Ackley to Denbow deed, it is undisputed that Denbow did not own the westerly portion of Lot 10 when the State purported to take it from Denbow in a lien foreclosure. But for a legal barrier to challenging the State's erroneous description of the delinquent taxpayer's land, there would be no question that the westerly portion of Lot 10 did not pass to the DiVetos. Accordingly we look to the tax lien repose statute at 36 M.R.S.A. § 946-A, which limits the time period during which challenges to the legal validity of a tax lien can be brought to fifteen years. [¶ 17] The motion court interpreted 36 M.R.S.A. § 946-A as a bar to challenges to the validity of tax liens only when the actual landowner was properly notified of the lien by the State through, at a minimum, identification in the tax lien certificate. To hold otherwise, the court reasoned, would constitute an unconstitutional deprivation of property without due process of law. [¶ 18] We review a trial court's interpretation of a statute directly for error of law and look to the plain meaning of statutory language to `give effect to the legislative intent.' Town of Ogunquit v. Dep't of Pub. Safety, 2001 ME 47, ¶ 7, 767 A.2d 291, 293 (citation omitted). If the statutory language is ambiguous, we will examine other evidence of legislative intent, such as legislative history. Coker v. City of Lewiston, 1998 ME 93, ¶ 7, 710 A.2d 909, 910. If a statute raises constitutional concerns, we will, whenever possible, construe the statute in a manner to avoid a declaration of unconstitutionality. Town of Baldwin v. Carter, 2002 ME 52, ¶ 12, 794 A.2d 62, 68. [¶ 19] Accordingly, we look first to the plain language of the statute. Disability or lack of knowledge of any kind does not suspend or extend the time limits provided in this section. 36 M.R.S.A. § 946-A(3). This phrase could be read to mean that after fifteen years there exists no recourse for an unaware property owner to challenge a tax lien on his land, even if that lien was generated based on governmental error and no notice was ever provided to the land owner. However, it is also possible to read this section so that such disability or lack of knowledge bars a challenge only for those upon whose land the government has a colorable right to foreclose in the first place. The ambiguity in the statute necessitates an examination of the history of section 946-A. [¶ 20] The original tax lien statute of repose was enacted in 1993, then was repealed completely and replaced in 1995 with the current language. Public comment in 1995 included concern about precisely the situation we address today: the possibility of an arbitrary seizure of property by the government, with no recourse for the wronged citizen after a statutorily limited period. [8] This concern was not directly addressed; instead the history of this statute indicates lawmakers' primary goal to free real estate transactions of title clouds after fifteen years in cases involving disability, minority, or lack of knowledge of a tax lien against their property. See 36 M.R.S.A. § 946-A(3). The historical record does not further address a situation in which the genesis of a dispute is governmental error in encompassing land not owned by the delinquent taxpayer. [¶ 21] We conclude that an interpretation of section 946-A that would allow the government to take property through a process providing neither notice nor an opportunity to challenge an erroneous lien would run afoul of the basic concepts of due process embedded in the Fourteenth Amendment. See, e.g., Grannis v. Ordean, 234 U.S. 385, 394, 34 S.Ct. 779, 58 L.Ed. 1363 (1914) (stating that the fundamental requisite of due process is the right to be heard; the fact that notice constitutes due process within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment is no longer open to question); Mutton Hill Estates, Inc. v. Town of Oakland, 468 A.2d 989, 992 (Me.1983) (It is essential to a party's right to procedural due process that he be given notice of and an opportunity to be heard at proceedings in which his property rights are at stake.). Therefore, we must interpret the statute as barring challenges to the validity of tax liens only if the government has taken reasonable steps to protect a property owner's due process rights, which includes identification of and notice to property owners. [9] This is all the more important in a case such as the one before us, in which notice to the owner is not only necessary to satisfy the statutory requirement, [10] but where such notice could have resulted in notification to the State that they had made an error. In sum, we agree with the motion court that the well-founded desire of the Legislature to avoid instability in the area of property title transfers cannot extend to such fundamental due process failures as complete lack of notice to owners through significantly flawed property descriptions. [¶ 22] Consistent with this conclusion, Maine Title Standards, in an analysis of section 946-A, calls for a title examiner relying on a tax deed to search the title prior to the recording of such deed in order to confirm that title was in fact vested in the delinquent owner prior to the taking and to determine the legal description of the property in question. MAINE TITLE STANDARDS, No. 902 (1999). [¶ 23] In the present case, the 1948 conveyance from Ackley to Denbow left Ackley with a separate lot that was erroneously swept up into the 1951 foreclosure on the Denbow property. Such an error cannot find protection in the provisions of a tax lien repose statute and still pass constitutional muster. Because the 1951 tax lien certificate is void as to the westerly portion of Lot 10, the State never obtained title to that land and, consequently, did not acquire the ability to convey the property to Dixon in 1954. See Calthorpe v. Abrahamson, 441 A.2d 284, 287 (Me.1982) (stating that [a] grantor can convey effectively by deed only that real property which [it] owns). Thus, all subsequent conveyances of the westerly portion of Lot 10 in the Dixon chain of title, including the conveyance to the DiVetos, were ineffective, and the motion court correctly found that the DiVetos could not establish title to the westerly portion of Lot 10. [11]