must also be paid in at the time of paying the taxes. [Id., Sec. 83.]

The penalty is ten per cent, interest six per cent, and the costs dependent upon the circumstances of the case. If payment be made into the county treasury, the person paying is required to file the Treasurer's receipt with the County Auditor, and take his receipt in place thereof. And in case of payment into the State treasury, the person paying is required to file the Treasurer's receipt with the Auditor of the State, and to take his receipt therefor, which he is required to file in the proper county; and a sale before the filing of the receipt is valid. If, however, proceedings for a sale shall have been commenced before the filing, upon filing the receipt and payment of costs and charges, the proceedings may be stayed. [R. S., 223, Sec. 86.]

Such in brief is the modus operandi for the levy and collection of taxes in Indiana. The penalty of omission or neglect to pay land taxes forms the subject matter of the following article.

XIV. LAND TAX FORFEITURES AND REDEMPTIONS IN

IN INDIANA.

and

No topic, within the scope of the present work, elicits more concern on the part of land owners, mortgagees judgment creditors, than that which relates to land tax forfeitures and redemptions in a foreign State. The number of this class residing in the eastern and midland States being immense, and no means of information upon this point being at their ready command, losses and disappointments from this cause have been frequent and severe.

Non-residents of this State are informed that "on the first day of October annually, the County Auditor is required to make out and record in a book to be provided for that purpose, a list of all lands returned and remaining delinquent for taxes, charging them with a penalty of ten per centum,

and also with the taxes of the current year; to prepare a list thereof and publish the same at least four weeks successively in some newspaper having general circulation in his county, with a notice thereto appended of the time and place of sale; and that on the first Monday in January thereafter, at the court house in the county, the Treasurer will sell the same at public auction to the bidder who will pay the taxes for the least quantity of land. [R. S., 224, Sec. 90, 91, 92, 93.]

Such sale the Treasurer is required at that time to commence, and to continue from day to day until so much of each parcel assessed shall be sold as will pay the taxes, interest, and charges thereon.

"When less than the whole of any tract is sold, the quantity sold shall be taken off and laid out in a square form, as near as practicable at the most northwesterly corner of the tract; and when less than the whole of any inlot or outlot shall be sold, the part sold shall be taken off and laid off, so that it shall extend from the main or principal street, road, or alley, forming the most convenient front to such lot, to the rear of such lot, and to bound the same by lines, as nearly parallel, with the outlines of such lot as practicable." [Id., Sec. 95.]

The purchasers at such sale shall immediately pay the amount of their respective bids to the Treasurer; or on their failure to do so, the land shall be again forthwith offered for sale, the same as if no sale had been made; and the purchaser so failing shall forfeit and pay for the use of the common school fund of the county a penalty of twenty-five per centum on the amount of their bids, to be recovered by action of debt, in the name of the Treasurer, before any Justice of the Peace or Court having jurisdiction thereof." [Id., Sec. 96.]

"After payment shall have been made, the County Au

ditor (whose duty it is to attend as Clerk of Sales,) shall give to the purchaser a certificate in writing, describing the land so purchased, the sum paid, and the time when the purchaser will be entitled to a deed; which certificate shall entitle the holder to the possession of the premises therein described." [Id., Sec. 98.]

Such certificate is assignable, by statute, from one person to another, yet no assignment thereof will be held as valid, unless its execution shall be duly acknowledged and recorded in the office of the County Auditor.

The sale divests the original owner of his title; yet two years from the day of sale are allowed for redemption. Any person may redeem, but the redemption is subject to conditions. He who redeems must pay to the County Treasurer for the use of the purchaser, his heirs, or assigns, the sum mentioned in his certificate, the amount of all subsequent taxes paid, with fifty per centum on the whole sum, and interest from the date of purchase, or from the time of payment. And in case any "lasting and valuable improvements" shall have been made by the purchaser, at the tax sale, or by any person claiming under him, on the land proposed to be redeemed, the person redeeming cannot be restored to possession until he shall have paid or tendered to the purchaser at the tax sale, or his assigns claiming the improvements, the value thereof. If the parties cannot agree on the value, the same shall be determined by law. [Id., Sec. 102.]

But no compensation will be allowed for improvements made before the expiration of two years from the date of the sale for taxes. Compensation relates to a class of persons who labor under a disability to redeem within two years, and against whom the above limitation does not run. Infants, idiots, femmes covert, and insane persons, are not concluded by the two years above mentioned, but have two years from the removal of their disability, in which to redeem, and are

frequently obliged to make compensation to the purchaser, or his assigns. [R. S., 226, Sec. 103, 104.]

Herein may be seen the character of tax titles, as well as the rights of such as labor under the disability of infancy, idiocy, coverture, and insanity.

If there be no redemption within two years by any person, the purchaser, or his legal representatives, or assigns, may, at the expiration of that period, obtain from the Auditor a deed, which invests him with all the title acquired by the forfeiture. It is liable to be defeated by the redemption of the four classes of persons above named, if the original owner were of the number, at any time within two years after the removal of the disability. [Id., Sec. 113.]

"In case the sales of any land for taxes shall not be effected for want of bidders, the land shall be considered as forfeited to the State, to be disposed of as the General Assembly shall hereafter by law direct; and until so disposed of or redeemed, shall be continued on the duplicate, charged with all arrearages for which it was so forfeited, and interest; and shall be annually assessed with all accruing taxes, penalties and interest, as other lands. [R. S., 228, Sec. 124.]

"Such lands shall be annually offered for sale with, and on the same terms as, other delinquent lands; and until sold for the amount of all arrearages, may be redeemed on payment of the same into the county treasury, by the owner or owners thereof; and the records made by the County Auditors respecting delinquent lands, the manner of advertisement of the sales thereof, the sales made of the same, and the conveyances therefor executed, and all copies of such records duly certified to be such by the proper County Auditor, under his seal of office, shall be received as prima facia evidence of the facts contained therein."* [Id., 229, Sec. 125, 126.]

* The County Treasurer may appoint deputies, but the principal is liable for his acts. [2 Blackf., 227.] It has been held that sales are not invalid because or by reason of the land having been assessed to the wrong person. [Dewey.]

XV. LIMITATION OF REAL ACTIONS IN INDIANA.

No action for the recovery of any real estate sold on any execution can be brought by the debtor or his heirs, or by any person claiming under him by virtue of any right, title, or interest acquired from or through the debtor after the rendition of the judgment or decree under which the sale was made, unless brought within ten years after the sale." [R. S., 456, Sec. 13.]

No action for the recovery of any real estate sold by any executor or administrator under the provisions of any statute can be maintained, unless commenced within five years after the sale; nor can any action be maintained by any ward, for the recovery of any real estate sold by his or her guardian, unless commenced within five years after the termination of the guardianship." [Id., 458, Sec. 25.]

The above provisions, however, are subject to the exception, that persons out of the State, minors, and others, under any legal disability to sue at the time, when their right of action accrued, may commence actions at any time within five years after returning to the State, attaining majority, or removal of the disability. [Id., Sec. 26.]

"No action of ejectment shall be commenced or maintained for the recovery of any lands or tenements against any person or persons who may have been in the quiet and peaceable possession of the same, under an adverse title, for twenty years, either in his own right, or the right of any other person or persons under whom he claims; and any action of

If one or two, or more joint owners of lands shall pay the taxes upon the whole, he may sue for and recover of the other, or others, a contribution. [Statutes.] If the Auditor discover that a sale is invalid, he should refund the money to the purchaser, and omit to give a deed. [Idem.]

Redemptions restore the owner to all his original rights. [Idem.]

The personal property of every widow and orphan in Indiana not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars in value, and the property of all other persons which by law is exempt from execution, cannot be taxed. [Idem.]