Opinion ID: 2320989
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Payment of Taxes

Text: Because Quillens did file a timely amended notice of appeal from the foreclosure of the right to redeem the City's properties, we will entertain Quillens' argument that he was not required to tender payment of all of the deficient taxes in order to challenge the validity of the subsequent tax sale proceedings. [13] Quillens contends that our recent decision in Canaj, Inc. v. Baker and Division Phase III, 391 Md. at 374, 893 A.2d at 1067, is not applicable because, as he argues, Canaj only applies when a party is seeking affirmative post-foreclosure relief invoking the court's general equity jurisdiction; whereas Quillens argues that he was challenging the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court by asserting that the tax certificates issued were invalid. In Canaj, the owner of fourteen properties located in Baltimore City, Canaj, failed to pay its real property taxes, and the City attempted to sell the properties at a tax sale. Baker purchased the properties and filed complaints seeking to foreclose Canaj's right of redemption, which the circuit court ordered. Canaj filed a motion seeking to vacate the judgments based on allegations of fraud, mistake or irregularity; the court denied the motions, and on appeal, we affirmed. The first issue we considered was whether, in order to challenge a tax sale, the individual had to pay the overdue taxes. We determined that he did, stating: If a delinquent taxpayer can find a way to overturn a tax sale without paying the delinquent taxes, the delinquent taxpayer will never redeem. It is for this reason that the general rule is that in order to challenge a tax sale, the payment of taxes in arrears is a condition precedent. It was not met in the case at bar (at one point prior to the judgments, appellant appeared to question the computation of taxes but not that some amount was due. That issue was abandoned and not raised in the case before us.). The case law that seems to support the right of a taxpayer to proffer a sum (instead of paying it) only relates (if it applies at all) to claims that the purchase price at the tax sale was inadequate. It does not change the requirement that in order to challenge the holding of a tax sale, the taxes must be paid as a condition precedent.    By attacking the sale procedure in a post-judgment motion to vacate, instead of paying the taxes and charges which it would have been required to do in order to redeem prior to judgment, the taxpayer appears to be seeking to have the title of the property revert back to the delinquent taxpayer without having to ever redeem by paying the overdue and due taxes.    We continue to hold that in order to challenge the foreclosure of the equity of redemption in a tax sale, the taxes and other relevant charges acknowledged to be due, either prior to the challenge or simultaneously with it, must, as a condition precedent, be paid. Appellant has not contested the fact that taxes are owed, or in this appeal, the amounts. There is no issue as to his obligation to pay the taxes. If we were to overrule our cases holding that payment is first required, the City would be left where it was before the tax sale. The public would be burdened perpetually with the problems created by the thousands of abandoned properties, which the delinquent owners would be unlikely to ever pay taxes on or ever to rehabilitate. Canaj, 391 Md. at 385 n. 6, 382-88, 893 A.2d at 1073-74 n. 6, 1075, 1080 (emphasis added). The Canaj holding applies, by its own terms, to the present case. Quillens is trying to skirt this by saying that he is challenging the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court; in effect, by challenging the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court, however, Quillens is seeking post-foreclosure affirmative relief because he is seeking to have the tax sale and the order foreclosing his right of redemption in the City properties set aside. In light of our opinion in Canaj, a property owner must tender all of the deficient real property taxes before he can challenge the validity of a tax sale, which Quillens has failed to do.