United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Keely v. Sanders, 99 U.S. 441 (1878)

Keely v. Sanders

99 U.S. 441

Syllabus

1. The court reaffirms the doctrine in De Treville v. Smalls, 98 U. S. 517, that the certificate given by the commissioners to the purchaser of lands at a sale for a direct tax, under the Act of June 7, 1862, 12 Stat. 422, as amended by the Act of Feb. 6, 1863, id., 640, is prima facie evidence of the regularity of the sale and of all the antecedent facts essential to its validity and to that of his title thereunder, and that it can only be affected by establishing that the lands were not subject to the tax, or that it had been paid previously to the sale, or that they had been redeemed.

2. The sale may be valid although, when it and the assessment were made, the lands belonged to a nonresident and were in custodia legis, the state court in which the lis was pending having enjoined all creditors from interfering with or selling them, and they were sold as an entirety notwithstanding the fact that the tax bore but a small proportion to their value.

3. A description of the lands in the notice of sale, which identifies them so that the owner may have information of the claim thereon, is all that the law requires.

4. The word "district," where it occurs in the sixth section of the said act of 1862, signifies a part or portion of a state. The City of Memphis, Tenn., where the lands in controversy are situate, was therefore a district within the meaning of that section.

Page 99 U. S. 442