Court Opinion

ID: 9864974
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 16:18:47.611523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:36:32.224983
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Butler
specially concurring.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment. The tax sale, being void, passed to the purchaser (the county) no title to or interest in the property. The company’s title remained unaffected by the sale. The company continued to own the property after the void sale the same as before, subject to all unpaid taxes. The county, having acquired by the sale no title or interest, passed none to Ireland by the assignment of the certificates. The payment by Ireland to the county inured to the benefit of the company; it amounted to a payment of a part of the taxes due by the company, leaving the balance due and unpaid. Though the sale passed no title or interest, the recording of the tax certificates clouded the company’s title, and when the company seeks the interposition of a court of equity to remove that cloud, it should be required to do equity. As the company received the benefit of a part payment of its taxes by Ireland, equity requires the company to reimburse Ireland for the amount paid by him, with interest thereon at the rate of 8 per cent per *199annum, but it does not require the company to do anything more. As the judgment ordered such reimbursement as a condition to the removal of the cloud, it is properly affirmed.