Opinion ID: 2019471
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Is Plaintiff's Action Barred by Lapse of Time or Laches?

Text: Sec. 75.61 (1), Stats., requires that any action to set aside a tax sale, or restrain the issuing of a tax deed, for any error going to the validity of the assessment shall be commenced within one year from the date of such tax sale and not thereafter. Sec. 75.62 (1) provides that within twenty days after the commencement of such an action the plaintiff, as a condition of maintaining the same, must pay the amount of the taxes involved in the action together with interest and charges. However, in Trustees of Clinton Lodge v. Rock County (1937), 224 Wis. 168, 272 N. W. 5, this court held such two statutory provisions to be inapplicable to an action, such as the instant one, grounded solely upon the claim that the property is exempt from tax. The defendants now ask us to overrule Trustees of Clinton Lodge v. Rock County, supra . We decline to do so. Twenty-four years have now elapsed since that case was decided by this court, and the legislature has not seen fit to amend secs. 75.61 (1) and 75.62 (1), Stats., to make them applicable to actions, which assert the invalidity of tax sales, grounded solely on the claim that the property taxed was exempt. The construction given to a statute by the supreme court becomes a part of the statute when the legislature does not subsequently amend the statute so as to effect a change. Meyer v. Industrial Comm. (1961), 13 Wis. (2d) 377, 382, 108 N. W. (2d) 556, and Eau Claire Nat. Bank v. Benson (1900), 106 Wis. 624, 627, 82 N. W. 604. The defendants point to no statute other than secs. 75.61 (1) and 75.62 (1), which they contend bars the plaintiff's action, but they assert that it is barred by laches. However, one of the three essential elements of the defense of laches is prejudice to the party asserting such defense caused by the delay in instituting the action. Estate of Seefeldt (1957), 1 Wis. (2d) 509, 516, 85 N. W. (2d) 500. The defendants point to no facts in the record tending to prove that either the defendant county, or defendant county clerk, has been prejudiced by the plaintiff's delay in instituting the action. Therefore, the action is not barred by laches.