A Sensational Tax Title Suit

A SENSATIONAL TAX TITLE SUIT

Wolverine Land Co. Charged with Blackmail

TWO TAP TITLE DEEDS

Claimed to Have Been Fraudulently Obtained on Property on Ann Street

A rather sensational tax title suit was commenced in the circuit court yesterday, when George B. Sudworth, by his attorneys, J. W. Bennett and Arthur Brown brought suit against the Wolverine Land Co. and Hudson T. Morton, claiming $1,000 damages.

The bill starts out with the charge that the Wolverine Land Co. is organized for the purpose of buying and selling tax titles and that Hudson T. Morton is largely interested in buying and selling tax titles and "putting forth fraudulent and unfounded claims against the property of the peaceable citizens of the said city."

The bill states that H. T. Morton, in October, 1875, purchased a tax title on a lot on Ann street, now owned by Sudworth for $78.44, and, in October 1876 he purchased another tax title on this property for $70.32. It charges that last year Morton, at the malicious instigation of the Wolverine Land company, in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud, filed affidavits with the auditor general that he had lost certificates of these tax sales which he had not assigned or transferred, and so secured two tax deeds for the taxes of 1874 and 1875. After which Morton transferred these deeds to the Wolverine Land Co., which deeds and transfers were recorded, so that Sudworth, relying upon the claims, paid $200 for the deeds.

The complainant then charges that all these claims were known by the Land company and Morton to be untrue and made for the purpose of blackmailing the owners of the premises and compelling them to pay money unjustly for a clear title, for the reason that Hudson T.  Morton had on Jan. 1, 1876, for a valuable consideration, transferred the tax certificates which he claimed to have lost to Jerusha P. Noble, who was the then owner of the premises.