Tax-title Holders Are Happy

Not a few ownersof tax titles in Wash tenaw county are considerably affec by a decisión of the Supreine Court hand ed down recently. It was in the case o Peter Murihead vs. Louis Sands anc every tax title dealer and large property owner in the state has been anxiously awaiting the filing of the opinión for several months. Louis Sands, the wealthy Manistee lumberman, has been in the habit of permitting his land to be returned for taxes and then, when he got around to it, defeating the tax titles. In December, 1895, Murihead secured a tax deed of some 80 acres of land which Sands had permitted to be sold for the taxes of 1891 at the sale of 1893. Sands attacked the tax title in the Kalkaska Circuit Court,alleging numerous reasons for its ir validity, but the court decided against him, and he appealed to the Supreine Court, which affirined the judgment. The case is exhaustively reviewed in a unanimous opinión written by Jüstice Montgomery, all the questions raiped being considered. In affirmiui; the judgment the court concludes that under the tax law of 1893, tax sales can be set aside only when taxes have been paid and the sale thereforeimproperly made, or when property exempt from taxation has been included in the sale. This is.of course, in case that all proceedings subsequent to the confirmation of the sale have been regular. While tliis may work hardship in some cases, the court says that the law was devised for the purpose of requiring property owners to pay their taxes, and that the law is the result of many years of study and investigation. It is not inclined therefore, to fritter away the results obtaiued by the statute by mnking forced decisions. Under this decisión all the sales for taxes of 1891 are valid, save in the instance above mentioned. Thousands of dollars worth of property in all sections of the state are affected by this d escisión.