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99 Mich. 157

Millard v. Truax

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided February 27, 1894

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1894-02-27

<p>Taxes — Sale—Decree—Tax record — Figures without dollar mark— Report of sale.</p> <p>1. It is a fatal objection, to the legality of a sale of lands for taxes under the tax law. of 1889 that the items of taxes, interest, collection fee, charges, expenses, amount decreed against'lands, and amounts lands sold for are entered in figures on the tax record, without dollar marks, or any words or signs to indicate what the figures mean, except that a line appears to the left of the last two figures in said entries.1</p> <p>2. The failure of the county treasurer to make and file a report of sale of lands for taxes, as required by the tax law of 1889, or in any way to verify the fact and date of such sale upon' the tax record, invalidates the sale.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““It is well settled that a judgment is void which is given in figures merely.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Ensley v. Coolbaugh

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decree affirmed · Decided 1894-02-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently January 1943

15 state decisions

80189419001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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McGrath, O. J.

¶1This is a bill to remove a cloud upon complainant’s title, occasioned by a sale of his land for taxes under the law of 18891.

¶2The law provides that the petition filed by the Auditor General shall be in a record book, which shall contain a description of the land and the taxes thereupon in appropriate columns; that such record shall be ruled with columns for the description, the amount of taxes, the interest, charges, etc., and that it shall also contain blank columns for other specified entries, to be made at the time of the decree and upon sale. It is not contemplated by the act that either petition or decree shall contain any description of the land or statement of the amount decreed to be due, but that both decree and petition shall refer to the record book, which is denominated the “ Tax Kecord.” The amount found to be due is to be entered in the tax record by the register of the court, and the amount for which the land is sold, the interest in the land sold, and the name of the purchaser, with his address, etc., are to be entered therein by -the county treasurer upon sale. The decree is to be entered of record in the' court, and a certified copy is to be annexed to the tax record. After entry of the decree, the entire tax record goes to the county treasurer, and remains in his office. After the sale, the treasurer is required to make and file with the clerk of the court a report of the sale, and the sale stands confirmed unless objections are made within eight days after the time limited for filing such report. As soon as sales *160are confirmed, the treasurer reports the same to the Auditor General.

¶3Two objections are made, which, we think, are fatal to the sale:

1. The items of State taxes, county taxes, interest, collection fee, charges, expenses, amount decreed against lands, and amounts sold for, are in figures, without dollar marks, or any words or signs to indicate what the figures mean, except that a line appears upon the blanks to the left of the last two figures.
2. The county treasurer made no report of the sale. The only record of such sale is what is contained in the tax record.

¶4It is well settled that a judgment is void which is given in figures merely, with neither words nor signs to indicate that money is intended, or, if ij¡ is, what denomination of money the figures stand for. Cooley, TaxA (2d ed.), 529, and cases cited.

¶5Conceding that the tax record filed with the county treasurer may be treated as a part of the decree, and that it may be referred to in support of the proceedings subsequent to the decree, such record contains no certificate of the county treasurer, nor does his signature appear therein. The statute contemplates that the fact and date of sale shall be verified by the report of the county treasurer. This record is barren of any such authentication. The non-performance of this act invalidates the sale. Blackw. Tax Titles, §§ 641, 653.

¶6The decree below is therefore affirmed, with costs to complainant.

Long, Grant, and Montgomery, JJ., concurred with McGrath, C. J. Hooker, J., concurred in the result.

¶7 The sale was for taxes of 1887.

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