CHAPTER 142 - ELSMERE
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE COLLECTION OF TAXES AND ASSESSMENTS FOR THE TOWN OF ELSMERE.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met (two-thirds of each branch thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. That in addition to all existing methods and authority for the collection of taxes or special assessments due to The Commissioners of Elsmere, the following method and authority is hereby established:
The Commissioners of Elsmere may file, or cause to be filed, a Praecipe in the office of the Prothonotary of the Superior Court in and for New Castle County, which shall contain the name of the person against whom the taxes or assessment sought to be collected were assessed, and a copy of the bills showing the amount of tax or assessment due and the property against which the assessment was laid, and thereupon the said Prothonotary shall make a record of the same on the Judgment Records of said Superior Court against the property mentioned or described in said Praecipe. Thereafter, upon the application by The Commissioners of Elsmere, through any person authorized on its behalf to collect taxes or assessment due to said Town, a monition shall issue to the Sheriff of New Castle County, which monition shall briefly state the amount of taxes or assessment due and the years thereof, together with a brief description of the property upon which said taxes or assessments are a lien, and a description of such property by street and number shall be a sufficient description. Said monition shall be in substantially the following form:
To all persons having or claiming to have any title, interest or lien upon the within described premises, taking warning that unless the taxes or assessment stated herein are paid within twenty days after the date hereof, or within such period of twenty days, evidence of the payment of the taxes herein claimed shall be filed in the office of the Prothonotary, which evidence shall be in the form of a receipted tax bill or duplicate thereof, the Commissioners of Elsmere may proceed to sell the property herein mentioned or described for the purpose of collecting the taxes or assessment herein stated. Said monition or a copy thereof, shall, within ten days after its issuance, be posted by the Sheriff upon some prominent place or part of the property against which said taxes or assessment is due and the Sheriff shall make due and proper return of his proceeding under said monition within ten days after the posting of said monitions as aforesaid.
At any time after the expiration of twenty days after the return of the Sheriff upon said monition, unless before the expiration of said twenty days the said taxes shall be paid or evidence of the payment of the taxes consisting of receipted tax bills or duplicates thereof shall be filed in the office of the said Prothonotary, upon application by The Commissioners of Elsmere, through their Counsel, or any other person authorized on their behalf to collect taxes or assessment due to the said Town, a writ of Venditioni Exponas shall issue out of the office of the said Prothonotary, directed to the Sheriff in the usual form, commanding the Sheriff to sell the property mentioned or described in said Praecipe and make due return of his proceedings thereunder in the same manner as is now applicable with respect to writs of Venditioni Exponas in the Superior Court.
Section 2. Any property sold under the provisions herein authorized shall vest in the purchaser all the right, title and interest of the person in whose name said property was assessed, and/or all right, title and interest of the person who is the legal owner thereof at the time of the filing of said Praecipe in the office of the Prothonotary, and likewise freed and discharged from any dower or courtesy, whether absolute or inchoate, in or to said real estate. The owner of any property sold or his legal representatives, may redeem the property at any time within one year from the day the sale is approved by the Court, and if the owner or his legal representatives does not redeem such property within said period, any person having any interest in said property, or lien upon such property, shall be entitled to redeem the same within eighteen months of the date of such approval by the Court, by paying to the purchaser or his legal representative the amount of the purchase price, and fifteen per cent in addition thereto, or if the purchaser or his legal representative shall refuse to receive the same, by paying said amount into said Court.
Section 3. Upon the return of the proceedings under said writ of Venditioni Exponas, the Superior Court may inquire into the regularity of the proceedings thereunder, and either approve the sale or set it aside.
Section 4. No proceedings shall be brought under this Act unless the tax or assessment sought to be collected hereunder shall at the time of the filing of said Praecipe in the office of the Prothonotary be and constitute a lien upon the property against -which the tax or assessment was assessed or laid.
Approved May 17, 1937.