Court Opinion

ID: 9772255
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:11:54.101493+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:42.916440
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON PETITION TO REHEAR
LEECH, Special Justice.
The State has filed a petition to rehear in this case questioning that portion of the original opinion wherein we remanded the cause to the Probate Court of Putnam County to determine in part whether the plea of laches which was pretermitted in that court can be applied. We are not holding that laches will or will not apply in this case because the lower court has not yet made a factual determination as to laches on the facts. We have, in essence, merely restated what Mr. Justice Humphreys said in Cox v. State, 222 Tenn. 606, 439 S.W.2d 267 (1969) that: *516Moreover, in Robinson v. Bierce, 102 Tenn. 428, 438, 52 S.W. 992, this Court said:
*515“[T]he general principal of the application of the doctrine of laches to the State may be subject to further consideration in a case strongly calling for it

*516“We know of no rule of sovereignty or divinity which hedges a tax suit with immunity from the rules of equity and practice which control other suits.”
This language was also quoted with approval in State ex rel. v. Patterson, 155 Tenn. 169, 290 S.W. 973.
We cannot pass upon the question of whether the plea of laches in this case would be applicable until there has been a factual determination in the trial court.
Petition to rehear is denied.
DYER, C. J., and CHATTIN, Mc-CANLESS and FONES, TJ., concur.