DocketNumber: K.C. # 87-776
Judges: <underline>Savage. J.</underline>
Filed Date: 4/10/1997
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/6/2016
According to the Coventry tax roles, as of 1970, plaintiff Charles Devine was assessed and assumed the taxes on what he apparently thought was Emma Devine's full 1/2 interest in the Property. In reality, between 1970 and 1979, plaintiff Charles Devine was only billed for twenty percent of the taxes on the Property. From 1979 to 1993, plaintiff Charles Devine was billed for a full fifty percent of the taxes owing on the Property. It is undisputed that plaintiff Charles Devine paid all of the taxes assessed to him from 1970 to 1993. Additionally, in 1978 and 1981, the Coventry Tax Collector informed plaintiff Charles Devine that, according to its records, he still held a one-half interest in the Property.
Hazel Packham, however, had failed to pay the taxes on her fifty percent interest in the Property which were assessed to her. As a result, in 1974, the Town of Coventry advertised that, on February 8, 1974, "[l]ots 64, 65, 66, [p]lat 6, taxed to Hazel Pacham," would be auctioned off for back taxes owed. No mention of the interests of Emma Devine or plaintiff Charles Devine appeared in these advertisements. The tax deeds issued pursuant to the sale, however, purported to convey to the purchaser portions of the Property held as a matter of record by Emma Devine and assessed to Charles Devine. Third-party defendant Suburban was the highest bidder at this sale. On March 4, 1974, Coventry Tax Collector Audry H. Cornell issued three tax collector's deeds to Suburban Land Company which granted it an "undivided 1/16 interest of all the right, title and interests of the said Emma Devine and Hazel Packham . . . in and to that certain tract or parcel of land . . . located in the Town of Coventry, and laid out and designated as lot 64 Plat 6", "an undivided 1/256 interest of all right, title and interest of the said Emma Devine and Hazel Packham . . . in and to that certain tract or parcel . . . located in the Town of Coventry, and laid out and designated as lot 65, Plat 6", and "an undivided 1/128 interest of all the right, title and interest of the said Emma Devine and Hazel Packham . . . in and to that certain tract or parcel of land . . . located in the Town of Coventry laid out and designated as lot 66, plat 6." All three deeds provide that "Audry H. Cornell, Tax Collector, did cause notice of said levy and time and place of sale to issue to Emma Devine, 160 Smith Street, Cranston, Rhode Island, and Hazel P. Packham, 160 Smith Street, Cranston Rhode Island, upon whom said notices were duly served twenty days previous to said day of sale; and to all others having any right, title, and interest in and to said estate by publication."
After this first sale, Hazel Packham continued to fail to pay her assessed share of taxes on the Property. As a result, a second tax sale took place in 1979. Again the Town of Coventry advertised that, on February 23, 1979, "[l]ots 64, 65, 66, [p]lat 6 taxed to Hazel P. Packham," would be auctioned off for back taxes. This advertisement, like the earlier 1974 advertisement, did not mention the interests of Emma Devine or Charles Devine. The tax deeds issued pursuant to this tax sale, however, again purported to convey to the purchaser the balance of the Property held as a matter of record by Emma Devine and assessed to Charles Devine. Third-party defendant Suburban was also the highest bidder at this sale. On March 12, 1979, Coventry Tax Collector Audry H. Cornell issued a fourth tax collector's deed to Suburban Land Company granting it "all the right, title and interest of the said Hazel P. Packham and Emma Devine, . . . said interest being an undivided 15/16 interest of the whole interest, in and to the certain tract or parcel . . . located in the Town of Coventry and laid out and designated as lots 64, 65, 66, Plat 6". This deed also stated that Tax Collector Audry H. Cornell did "cause notice of said levy and time and place of sale to issue to Hazel P. Packham, 160 Smith Street, Cranston, Rhode Island; Emma Devine, 160 Smith Street, Cranston, Rhode Island and Suburban Land Company, 79 Coolridge Road, Greenville, Rhode Island upon whom said notices were duly served twenty days previous to said day of sale; and to all others having any right, title and interest in and to said estate by publication."
Suburban foreclosed all rights of redemption on the Property in 1980 in Suburban Land Co. v. Hazel Packham, Emma Devine andtheir spouses, if any there be, if living, and if deceased, theirheirs, assigns and devisees, KC/MP No: 80-35 after publishing a notice in the Providence Journal which was addressed to "all whom it may concern and to Hazel P. Packham, Emma Devine, and their spouses if any there be, if living, and if deceased, their heirs, assigns and devisees." Additionally, in a certificate of service filed in KC/MP-80-0035, counsel for Suburban stated that "he served the citation at issue by mail to each respondent named therein whose address was furnished by petitioner [Suburban] or otherwise known by certified mail return receipt requested". No receipts are contained in the file. Also absent is any record as to who was served by certified mail or what address appeared on the mailed citations. According to third-party defendant Suburban Land Company, this service was made upon Emma Devine at her last known address. No personal notice of this foreclosure petition is alleged to have been given to plaintiff Charles Devine directly. Then on May 7, 1985, Suburban conveyed its interest in the Property to Fagan Door Corporation by warranty deed. Since this date, Fagan Door has occupied and made exclusive use of the entire Property.
In his original complaint, plaintiff Devine claimed that he owned a one-third interest in the Property and that his interest combined with his cousins' interests equaled a one-half interest in the Property. Plaintiff Devine sought a court-ordered partition of the real estate, if possible, or, in the alternative, the sale of the Property so that the proceeds could be divided with thirty-three percent being awarded to him, seventeen percent being awarded to defendants Eugene Devine and Ellen Murphy, and fifty percent being awarded to defendant Fagan. In his first amended complaint, plaintiff Devine changed his claimed interest from one-third to one-quarter.
Defendants Eugene Devine, Ellen Murphy, and Fagan Door answered the complaint, and Fagan Door filed a third-party complaint against Suburban Land Company alleging breach of the covenants contained in the Suburban-Fagan warranty deed. Plaintiff Devine then filed a second amended complaint in which he added a second count seeking reimbursement from defendants Eugene Devine and Ellen Murphy respectively for the twenty five percent of the taxes due on their one-fourth share of the Property and which Charles Devine allegedly paid. In this second count, plaintiff Devine also sought fifty percent of the reasonable rental value of the Property from Fagan for the years 1985 to 1993.
Plaintiff Devine later filed a third amended complaint which added an additional request that the court order foreclosing the right of redemption issued in KC/MP 80-0035 be invalidated. Lastly, plaintiff Devine again altered his requested relief in his reply memorandum of law because it became apparent that from 1973 to 1979 Charles Devine only had been assessed and paid twenty percent of the taxes on the Property. As a result, Emma Devine's interest had allegedly fallen into arrears. Thus, plaintiff Charles Devine requested that this Court order that he owns a twenty percent interest in the Property, that Fagan owns an eighty percent interest in the Property, that Eugene Devine and Ellen Murphy have no interest in the Property and that plaintiff Devine is owed the extra thirty percent of taxes above and beyond his alleged interest which he paid from 1979 to 1993. Finally, plaintiff Devine altered his prayer for relief by reducing the percentage of the reasonable rental value he sought from Fagan from fifty percent to twenty percent for the years 1985 to 1993.
After denying that plaintiff Devine owned a one-third interest in the Property, defendants Eugene Devine and Ellen Murphy admitted all the allegations contained in plaintiff Devine's first amended complaint and second amended complaint except that they neither admitted nor denied owing tax contributions to plaintiff Devine. They apparently never answered plaintiff's third amended complaint. In these answers, defendant Devine and Murphy raised no defenses. In its answer, defendant Fagan Door simply left plaintiff Devine to prove his claim, and raised no affirmative defenses. While the record contains no answer by Suburban Land Co. to Fagan Door's third-party complaint, Suburban admitted in response to plaintiff Devine's request for admission # 8 that it sold the Property to Fagan Door by Warranty Deed. Additionally in a memorandum filed by third-party defendant Suburban, it asserts that it had full title to the Property and that the foreclosure of the right of redemption is valid and binding because plaintiff Devine, whose name did not appear in a title search, was served notice derivatively through service of Emma Devine and via publication.
The parties have submitted the question of who has what interest in the Property to this Court for decision based on an agreed statement of facts and documents and the parties' respective memoranda of fact and law.
The primary issue to be addressed by this Court is whether the 1974 and 1979 tax sales by the Town were valid. The Rhode Island Supreme Court has held that those statutes giving authority for the sale of land for failure to pay taxes are to be strictly construed and applied in favor of the owner of the property. Parker v. McCue,
Section
The plain and unambiguous language of §
In addition to the requirements for notice by publication in §
Here the tax deeds issued by the tax collector in 1974 and 1979 purported to convey to Suburban Land Company (1) the interest of Hazel Packham and (2) the interest of Emma Devine, as assessed to plaintiff Charles Devine who had been a taxpayer on the Property from 1970 through the dates of each tax sale. Because the deeds purported to convey the interest of Emma Devine, which was assessed by the Town to Charles Devine, §
Rather, all the evidence of record establishes that no such notice was given to plaintiff Devine. First, the advertisements for both the 1974 and 1979 tax sales that were published ostensibly pursuant to §
The next question is whether the defects in notice are sufficient to invalidate the tax titles issued pursuant to the tax sales in 1974 and 1979. Rhode Island Gen. Laws §
The next question is whether the invalidity in the tax titles resulting from the absence of proper notice which was substantial and misleading is irrelevant in light of Suburban's foreclosure of the right of redemption in the Property in 1980. Section
Under recent pronouncements of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, however, it appears that absolute title only can be conveyed if the underlying tax sale was valid. In Ashness v.Tomasetti,
The Supreme Court also has suggested that equity allows the vacating of an order foreclosing rights of redemption where the notice of the sale at issue was so defective as to be a substantial irregularity that is misleading. See, Murray v.Schillace,
Under this exception, the invalidity of the 1974 and 1979 tax titles requires vacating the 1980 order foreclosing rights of redemption. First, the tax sale was invalid because the statutory notice required in §§
As a result of the invalidity of the tax sale and the order foreclosing the rights of redemption, it next must be determined in whom the Property vests. In both Ashness v. Tomasetti andThurston v. Miller, the Supreme Court stated that "the failure to serve an interested party with notice of a tax sale invalidates that sale with respect to all interested parties, despite the fact that at least one of the parties did receive legal or actual notice of the proceeding". Ashness, 643 A.2d at 811 (citation omitted); Thurston v. Miller 10 R.I. at 365 (emphasis added). Accordingly, title to the Property in its entirety reverts back to the estates of Hazel Packham and Emma Devine subject to all the rights, interests, and encumbrances that existed as of the 1974 and 1979 tax sales. Title does not vest in plaintiff Devine because he has failed to present any evidence that he is an heir at law of Emma Devine (although no one apparently disputes that fact) nor his actual legal percent interest in the Property as an heir. As a matter of fact, plaintiff Devine has at different times claimed to have owned a one-fourth, a one-third, and a one-fifth interest in the Property. Compare plf. first complaintwith plf. first amended complaint and plf. reply memorandum. As a result, plaintiff Devine's request for reasonable rents on the Property, reimbursement for past taxes paid, and partition are denied. Finally, as to the third-party complaint against Suburban Land Company, it is this Court's ruling that since it is undisputed that Suburban sold the Property to Fagan by warranty deed and that it was breached, Suburban is liable to Fagan Door for breach of warranty. The issue of damages, if any, has been preserved and remains for trial.
Picerne v. Sylvestre , 113 R.I. 598 ( 1974 )
L. Brayton Foundry Building, Inc. v. Santilli , 676 A.2d 1364 ( 1996 )
Ashness v. Tomasetti , 643 A.2d 802 ( 1994 )
Williams v. City of Providence , 641 A.2d 1328 ( 1994 )
Crafts, Danforth, Clarke, for an Opinion , 41 R.I. 63 ( 1918 )
Thurston v. Miller , 10 R.I. 358 ( 1872 )