Opinion ID: 1965477
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Municipal Lien Certificate

Text: Before closing on the property, Sepe and Slade's Ferry ordered a municipal lien certificate from the city. They argued before the Superior Court, as they do on appeal, that because the certificate did not mention 140 Reservoir Avenue's tax payment as a result of a tax sale, they took title to the property free and clear of the tax sale pursuant to § 44-7-11. [11] The city contends that, regardless of the merits of this argument, Sepe and Slade's Ferry waived it because they failed to raise it in their answer to 140 Reservoir Avenue's petition to foreclose the right of redemption. The city cites § 44-9-31, which says: Contest of validity of tax title.If a person claiming an interest desires to raise any question concerning the validity of a tax title, the person shall do so by answer filed in the proceeding on or before the return day, or within that further time as may on motion be allowed by the court, or else be forever barred from contesting or raising the question in any other proceeding. He or she shall also file specifications setting forth the matters upon which he or she relies to defeat the title; and unless the specifications are filed, all questions of the validity or invalidity of the title, whether in the form of the deed or proceedings relating to the sale, shall be deemed to have been waived. Upon the filing of the specifications, the court shall hear the parties and shall enter a decree in conformity with the law on the facts found. The hearing justice ruled that the tax sale was invalid because the city failed to notify Mrs. Kilberg, and he did not discuss Sepe and Slade's Ferry's argument about the faulty municipal lien certificate. Sepe and Slade's Ferry now suggest to us, however, that the erroneous municipal lien certificate provides an alternate basis for affirming the Superior Court judgment because the trial justice would have been correct in ruling that the property was discharged from the tax sale because the city issued the municipal lien certificate. We disagree. The language of § 44-7-11 does not suggest that the title purchased at a tax sale is defeated merely by the subsequent issuance and recording of a municipal lien certificate that fails to list the tax sale. In this case, the hearing justice predicated his ruling on other grounds and simply did not address the issue of the municipal lien certificate. Moreover, the city had not even been made a party to the proceedings when the issue was raised. Any questions concerning the allegedly faulty lien certificate first should be addressed at a hearing in which the city is a full participant. We decline, therefore, Sepe and Slade's Ferry's invitation to affirm the Superior Court judgment on the basis of the municipal lien certificate.