Court Opinion

ID: 9856621
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:52:19.148546+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:09.885414
License: Public Domain

Nichols, Presiding Judge,
dissenting. The majority opinion correctly holds that taxes are not debts, but then proceeds to hold that the taxing authority is a “person concerned” with the administration of an estate so as to permit it, or its tax commissioner, to file a caveat to an application for a year’s support.
Much stress is placed on the following language used in Wade v. Thompson, 97 Ga. App. 675, 679 (104 SE2d 250): “If the governments purported to be represented by the tax commissioner in his capacity as tax collector have such an interest in the administration of an estate because of taxes which might be due them in the event the estate is sufficient to provide for those claims on the estate superior to their taxes and still have funds available for the taxes, then it would be the proper authorities of such governments who would be authorized to file a caveat to the year’s support proceedings, and not the tax collector, whose duties are limited by law.” (Emphasis supplied).
Such language was not used to express an opinion by the court that such a right existed but as a recognition that such question was not settled. In Paulk v. City of Ocilla, 55 Ga. App. 479, 480 (190 SE 409), it was said: “This ruling is not based on the theory that the City of Ocilla under no circumstances could have objected to the return because it was not such a 'person concerned’ as would have such a right.” In Davis v. City of Atlanta, 182 Ga. 242 (185 SE 279), the Supreme Court held that a return which made the property set aside “subject to taxes” would not be set aside in a separate suit in equity where the petition did not allege a cause of action authorizing such relief because the applicant had failed to follow up her petition for a year’s support. Accordingly, the language quoted above *440from the case of Wade v. Thompson, supra, is not authority for or against the right of a county to caveat a return of the appraisers in a year’s support proceeding as being excessive for the purpose of assuring the collection of taxes due on property set aside to the widow in such proceeding.
Neither Fulton County nor its tax commissioner is a “creditor” or “person concerned” with the administration of an estate so as to authorize the filing of a caveat to an application for a year’s support for the reasons set forth in the majority opinion in Wade v. Thompson, 97 Ga. App. 675, supra. Where the application or return of the appraisers in the year’s support proceeding is tainted with fraud the Supreme Court has held that an injunction is the proper remedy where the victim of the fraud does not fall within the limited category authorized by statute to file a caveat. See McGahee v. McGahee, 204 Ga. 91 (48 SE2d 675); Dukes v. Cairo Banking Co., 220 Ga. 507 (140 SE2d 182). The demurrers to both caveats should have been sustained.
I am authorized to state that Frankum and Pannell, JJ., concur in this dissent.