Opinion ID: 2324034
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Court's Authority Was Limited to Setting Aside the Sale in Light of the Absence of Fraud on Behalf of Rupsha

Text: Although we conclude that the District was required to reimburse Rupsha, and the only available means under the statute to do so was through exercising the Mayor's authority to cancel a sale pursuant to D.C.Code § 47-1366, the District did not timely exercise this option. Therefore, Rupsha sought relief from the Superior Court. The Tax Sale Statute gives the Superior Court authority to set aside a sale under D.C.Code § 47-1380. [18] If the sale involved fraud on the part of the purchaser, the Superior Court must set aside the sale, but need not do anything more. D.C.Code § 47-1380(d). However, if the Superior Court sets aside the sale for any other reason, the property must first be redeemed, the redeeming party must pay the amount directed by statute, as adjusted by the court, and, if there was no purchaser fraud, the Mayor must reimburse the purchaser the purchase price, any paid taxes, statutory interest, and other expenses. Id. §§ 47-1380(a)-(c). The Superior Court should have set the tax sale aside because it could not continue with foreclosing Ms. Banks's right of redemption. Further, since Rupsha did not engage in any fraud, the court was limited to setting the sale aside in the absence of fraud. While the Superior Court did set the sale aside, it did so by declaring the Tax Certificate void ab initio. This was error. Because the Mayor's authority under the statute is limited to cancelling the sale, so too was the Superior Court's authority limited to setting aside the sale as cancelled rather than void ab initio. This is so because under this statute, a prerequisite to the Superior Court setting aside a sale is that the property be redeemed. D.C.Code § 47-1380(b). Under the circumstances of this case, the statute authorizes the Property to be redeemed in two ways: (1) Ms. Banks could redeem the Propertywhich we have already established would be unfair under the circumstances; or (2) the Mayor could serve as the redeeming party by cancelling the sale to prevent an injustice to the owner pursuant to § 47-1366. In light of the District's administrative error and subsequent failure to cancel the sale, the trial court should have required the District to cancel the sale under § 47-1366 and to act as the redeeming party under § 47-1361, which would enable the Superior Court to set aside the sale under § 47-1380(a)-(c). The statute provides no other means for the Superior Court to set aside the sale of the Property under the unique circumstances of this case.