Court Opinion

ID: 9864411
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 13:02:40.1003+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:11:58.729455
License: Public Domain

Hart, J., (on rehearing.) 'Counsel for appellees in their motion for a rehearing insist that under § 8391 of CraMord & Moses’ Digest the confirmation of the tax deed by appellants does not bar those of the appellees who are minors. In this contention counsel are correct. In addition to the section of the statute just referred to is cited the case of Smith v. Thornton, 74 Ark. 572, in which it was held: “A decree confirming a tax title cuts off attacks on the title for informality or illegality in the proceeding in reference to the sale, but does not cut off the right to redeem from the sale which is reserved by the statute to insane persons, minors or persons in confinement, and which may be exercised within two years from and after the expiration of such disability. ’ ’ This holding, however, does not help the ease of appellees any. They insist that minors cannot be barred by laches. In this contention they are also correct; but the trouble about this contention is that the parents of the minors were barred by laches, (and therefore the minors never acquired any rights in the land by descent from their parents. Some of the minors are descended from William Banks, who was a brother of Louis J. Banks, deceased. William Banks died in the month of November, 1887. He left surviving him several children, all of whom were adults. One of his children, Belva Kelley, who was twenty-six years old at the date of her father ’s death, died in the year 1913, leaving surviving her several minor children who are plaintiffs in this action. Adrian Banks, a son of William Banks, deceased, was .thirty-two years of age at the time his father died. He died in 1914, leaving surviving him several minor children who are also plaintiffs in the action. Mrs. N. V. Nation, a. sister of Louis J. Banks, deceased, died in December, 1919. Some of her grandchildren who are minors are also plaintiffs in the action. Now it will he remembered that Louis J. Banks died about the first of August, 1907. He owned no property except the tract of land in question in this lawsuit, and it'was wild and unimproved. He owed debts which the undisputed evidence shows were something more than the value of the land. Under our statute lands are assets in the hands of an executor or administrator for the payment of the debts of the testator or intestate. Crawford & Moses’ Digest, § 152, and cases cited. There being no personal property left by Louis J. Banks, the tract of land in question became at once subject to the payment of his debts. His brothers and sisters knew of the fact of his death, and failed to assert any rights in the land. M. J. Avera and his mother, who was the widow of Louis J. Banks, deceased, took charge of his land and paid his debts. If the brothers and sisters of Louis J. Banks, deceased, wished to assert their rights in the land, they should have done so, and Avera and his mother might have had the land sold for the payment of his debts and have thus acquired the legal title thereto. Hnder the circumstances, it became the duty of the brothers and sisters of Louis J. Banks to assert their claim in the land after his death. They were all adults and lived for six or seven years after his death. Therefore, they were barred by laches at the date of their death and their minor children and grandchildren never acquired any interest in the land. Belva Kellev died first, and she did not die until over six years after the death of Louis J. Banks. Her brother died the next year, and Mrs. Nation did not die until 1919. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the ancestors ef all the minors were barred by laches of any right of recovery of the land in question at the date of their death, and for that reason their minor descendants never acquired any interest in it. It follows that the petition for ia rehearing must be denied.