ALEX DRAKE ET AL., AS COMMISSIONERS, AND M. E. HOUGHTON, AS TAX COLLECTOR OF THE TOWN OF LAKE WORTH, APPELLANTS,
v.
A. H. THOMAS, ET AL., APPELLEES
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The Florida Supreme Court resolved a dispute over whether a town could publish its delinquent tax list in a newspaper outside the town's borders when a newspaper was published within the town. The court held that general state law required publication within the town when local newspapers were available, and therefore enjoined both payment for improper publication and the validity of any sales conducted under such notice.
The court held that the publication of Lake Worth's delinquent tax list in West Palm Beach was unauthorized under state law. The court affirmed the injunction preventing payment for such publication but reversed the lower court's decline to enjoin tax sales, thereby invalidating sales conducted pursuant to the improper publication.
“All laws now in force for the government of cities and towns, except in so far as they conflict with the provisions of this Act, shall apply to the said Town of Lake Worth and the officers thereof.”
Establishes that the Lake Worth charter incorporates general state law except where expressly conflicted
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceTax-paying citizens of Lake Worth, Florida sued to challenge the town's practice of publishing its 1920 delinquent tax list in the West Palm Beach new…
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Whitfield, J.
It appears .that in a suit brought by tax paying citizens alleging, that the delinquent tax list of real property in Town of Lake Worth, Florida, upon which municipal taxes for 1920 were assessed and unpaid, was being published in a newspaper in another municipality, viz: In the City of West Palm Beach, Florida, though there was a newspaper being published in the Town of Lake Worth, the chancellor restrained the city officials from paying for such tax list publication in the City of West Palm Beach from the funds of the Town of Lake Worth, but declined to enjoin sales of property for taxes under such publication of notice. The defendants appealed and assigned as error the order restraining payment for the publication, while the appellees assign as cross-error the portion of the order declining to restrain sales under the publication.
Section 1 of Article XII of Chapter 7665, Acts of 1917, being the charter Act of the Town of Lake Worth, Provides: “All laws now in force for the government of cities and towns, except in so far as they conflict with the provisions of this Act, shall apply to the said Town of Lake Worth and the officers thereof.”
Section 1894 Revised General-Statutes of 1920, is as follows: “The tax collector of any incorporated city or town, if there be no newspaper published within the said city or town, shall advertise the sale of any lands levied on for taxes by three written notices posted in three public places in said city or town.”
The charter Act of the Town of Lake Worth contains no specific provision on the subject, therefore the general law contained in Section 1894 Revised General Statutes of 1920 controls, and the publication in the City of West Palm Beach of the delinquent tax list of lands in the Town of Lake Worth was unauthorized.
That portion of the order appealed from which restrains payment by the Town of Lake Worth for the publication of the delinquent tax list made in the City of West Palm Beach is affirmed; but the portion of the order declining to restrain sales of lands in the Town of Lake Worth pursuant to a delinquent tax list published in the City of West Palm Beach is reversed.
It is so ordered.
Browne, C. J. and Taylor, Ellis and West, J. J., concur.
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Armstrong v. Richards, 128 Fla. 561 (Fla. 1937)…for this purpose is properly brought by an individual taxpayer on behalf of himself and other taxpayers in the municipality.” 19 R. C. L., Sec. 441, page 1167. See also Anderson v. Fuller, et al., 51 Fla. 380, 41 Sou. 684; Drake, et al., v. Thomas, 84 Fla. 177, 92 Sou. 878. Assuming that it is settled that the taxpayer may maintain the suit to compel the return to the public treasury of moneys which have been unlawfully withheld from the treasury officials, or others in conspiracy with officials, it appe…