Opinion ID: 6340838
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The tax suit and 1999 foreclosure judgment

Text: The Taxing Authorities’ original suit sought to foreclose tax liens on mineral interests whose owners had not paid their taxes at some point between 1978 and 1998. Several months after filing their original petition with an attached exhibit listing all defendants and properties, the Taxing Authorities’ attorney filed an affidavit seeking court approval for citation by posting under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 117a. 2 Tracking the requirements of Rule 117a, counsel said in part that each defendant listed in the exhibit was either a nonresident, absent from the state, or a transient person. Additionally, he said that the names or residences of the other landowners involved in the suit were unknown and could not be ascertained after diligent inquiry. Counsel further swore that, for any defendants for whom a rendition was filed in the previous five years with the appraisal district office that showed the address of any record owner, personal service was issued to 2 Rule 117a(3) provides: Where any defendant in a tax suit is a nonresident of the State, or is absent from the State, or is a transient person, or the name or the residence of any owner of any interest in any property upon which a tax lien is sought to be foreclosed, is unknown to the attorney requesting the issuance of process or filing the suit for the taxing unit, and such attorney shall make affidavit that such defendant is a nonresident of the State, or is absent from the State, or is a transient person, or that the name or residence of such owner is unknown and cannot be ascertained after diligent inquiry, each such person in every such class above mentioned, together with any and all other persons . . . may be cited by publication. 4 the rendition address. The record contains no citation or return of attempted service on any defendant listed in the exhibit. The court took the Taxing Authorities at their word and authorized citation by posting. On December 17, 1998, the exhibit and a two-page notice to defendants were provided to the Reeves County Sheriff’s Office and posted at the county courthouse. The notice required defendants to appear and answer the suit within 42 days, by January 31, 1999. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 114. Also on December 17, the Taxing Authorities filed a motion to appoint an attorney ad litem for the defendants who had not appeared or answered. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 244. The Court appointed Roddy Harrison, who withdrew two months later, on February 10, 1999, due to conflicts. The next day, the court appointed a new attorney ad litem, Jesse Gonzalez, Jr. At that time, a non-jury trial was scheduled for February 19, 1999. Mr. Gonzalez did not receive the records for the case until February 16, three days before trial. The trial apparently took less than five minutes. 3 After trial, the court signed a Statement of Evidence—to which the attorney ad litem agreed—reciting that the court had inquired into the sufficiency of the diligence exercised by the Taxing Authorities in attempting to discover the whereabouts of defendants. See id. According to the statement, the Taxing Authorities’ witness testified to a search of the public records of 3 The record indicates that six other tax delinquency suits were scheduled for trial at the same time as the suit at issue here, each with a different defendant or attorney ad litem. Trying all seven cases was estimated to take thirty minutes. Assuming each case received roughly the same amount of time, that would allow about four minutes per case. 5 the county, and that, where the records showed an address for a defendant, “citation was issued for personal service . . . at such address . . . but was unserved.” The court concluded that diligent inquiry had been made and signed a default judgment foreclosing the Taxing Authorities’ liens on the subject properties. The properties, including Elizabeth’s mineral interests, were then sold at a sheriff’s sale.