Court Opinion

ID: 9607070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:55:07.467923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:36.848486
License: Public Domain

*1141TUCKETT, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. The tract of land here in question was owned by the Utah Fuel Company. On December 23, 1932, the Utah Fuel Company conveyed the surface rights of the property to the Utah Grazing Lands Company. On August 31, 1950, the Utah Grazing Lands Company reconveyed the surface rights to the Utah Fuel Company. Through mesne conveyances the plaintiff herein became the owner of the property.
Plaintiff’s predecessor in interest, Utah Fuel Company, acquired the surface as well as the mineral estate by acquisition of a fee simple title from its predecessor. At the time of acquisition the Utah Fuel Company became seized of the surface as well as the mineral rights. Seisin once established is presumed to continue until the contrary is proved. It appears that the plaintiff’s right to possession of the minerals as an incident of its ownership has been continuous, and if there has been a disseisin of the plaintiff’s possession or right to possession it must have stemmed from the conveyances by the county auditor to Carbon County. Inasmuch as the invalidity of the county’s tax title is assumed for the purpose of this appeal it was ineffective in disseizing the plaintiff of its ownership.1
The terminology contained in Section 78-12-5.3 quoted in the main opinion wherein it states “any title to real property, whether valid or not,” if interpreted to mean that a person holding under a void tax title can bar the true owner from recovering his property would violate the due process clauses of both the state and federal constitutions, -and if some other connotation is given to the words used it would appear to the writer that it is subject to a constitutional challenge for vagueness.
In view of the provisions of Section 78-40-13, U.C.A.1953, it appears to the writer that a summary judgment is inappropriate in an action to quiet title. The pertinent part of that section is as follows:
When the summons has been served and the time for answering has expired, the court shall proceed to hear the cause as in other cases, and shall have jurisdiction to examine into and determine the legality of the plaintiff’s title and of the title and claims of all the defendants and of all unknown persons, and to that end must not enter any judgment by default against unknown defendants, but must in all cases require evidence of plaintiff’s title and possession and hear such evidence as may be offered respecting the claims and title of any of the defendants, and must thereafter enter judgment in accordance with the evidence and the law. . . . [Emphasis added.]
I would remand for the purpose of having the trial court take evidence and determine the nature of the defendants’ title and to comply with the statute above quoted.
MAUGHAN, J., concurs in the views expressed in the dissenting opinion of TUCKETT, J.

. Ownbey v. Parkway Properties, 222 N.C. 54, 21 S.E.2d 900; Thompson on Real Property, Sec. 31, p. 131, 1964 Kept.