Opinion ID: 1830115
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: superior title

Text: Finally, the trial court concluded that the plaintiffs had superior title to the property, based on the findings 1) that the plaintiffs took title from the United States, which had a superior lien on the property as of the date of the state tax delinquency, and 2) that the State tax sale was void because the State failed to notify the United States of its tax sale. Cullman argues that the United States did not have superior title to the property because, it says, at the time of the sale the property did not belong to the taxpayer, Clayton Sanders, but to his son, Stephen Sanders. Cullman asserts that Clayton and Ellen Sanders had conveyed title to the property in question some 10 years before the filing of the federal tax lien, and, therefore, that Clayton Sanders did not have an interest in the property that could lawfully be attached by the United States through a federal tax lien. In Keely v. Sanders, 99 U.S. 441, 443, 25 L.Ed. 327 (1878), the Supreme Court held that the commissioner's certificate of sale [is] prima facie evidence of the regularity and validity of the sale and of the title of the purchaser. Cullman failed to present sufficient evidence to rebut this prima facie evidence. Further, on September 21, 1961, the Internal Revenue Service filed a notice of a federal tax lien upon all property and rights to property belonging to Stephen Sanders, Transferee, due to the failure of Clayton Sanders to pay federal income taxes. The federal tax lien was filed and the property was sold by the United States before the State's purported sale of the property. This is sufficient evidence to support the trial court's conclusion that the United States lien was superior to the State's lien. Based upon our review of the record, we hold that the trial court's judgment is adequately supported by the evidence and that it is not clearly erroneous. Consequently, the trial court's judgment is due to be affirmed. AFFIRMED. MADDOX, SHORES, HOUSTON and KENNEDY, JJ., concur.