Delaware General Assembly

CHAPTER 143 BELLEFONTE

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE COLLECTION OF TAXES AND ASSESSMENTS FOR "THE COMMISSIONERS OF BELLEFONTE."

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 Bellefonte," the following methods and authority are hereby established:

The Commissioners of "The Commissioners of Bellefonte" 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 assessments sought to be collected were assessed, and a copy of the bills showing the amount of taxes or assessments due and the property against which the assessment was laid; and the statement of the lot number or numbers of the particular section in which said property is located shall be sufficient identification and description of the said property. The Prothonotary shall make a record of same on the judgment records of said Superior Court against the property mentioned or described in said Praecipe. Thereafter upon a Praecipe for Monition filed in the office of said Prothonotary by "The Commissioners of Bellefonte" through any person authorized on its behalf to collect taxes or assessments due to "The Commissioners of Bellefonte," a Motion shall be issued by the Prothonotary aforesaid to the Sheriff of New Castle County, which Monition shall briefly state the amount of the judgment for the taxes or assessments 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 or by lot number or numbers of the particular section in which said property is located 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 judgment for the taxes or assessment stated herein is paid within twenty days after the date hereof, or within such period of twenty days evidence of the payment of 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, bearing date prior to the filing of the lien in the office of the Prothonotary of New Castle County, "The Commissioners of Bellefonte" may proceed to sell the property herein mentioned or described for the purpose of collecting the judgment for the taxes or assessments herein stated.

Name of person Description of Year or Years Amount of

in whose name property Judgment

property is assessed

Said Monition, or a copy thereof, shall be posted by the Sheriff upon some common place or part of the property against which said judgment for the taxes or assessments is a lien, and a copy of said Monition shall be left, in the presence of an adult person, at the usual place of abode within New Castle County of the person in whose name the property is assessed. If the person in whose name the property is assessed is a corporation, a copy of said Monition shall be left, in the presence of an adult person, at its principal place of business in New Castle County. If said person does not reside in New Castle County, or if said corporation has no place of business in New Castle County, a copy of said Monition shall be mailed in a sealed postpaid envelope directed to the last known address or place of business of the said person or corporation. The Sheriff shall make due and proper return of his proceedings under said Monition to said Prothonotary within ten days after the leaving of said copy of Monition as aforesaid or the mailing of said copy of Monition as aforesaid.

Alias or pluris Monition may issue upon like Praecipe. The posting of said Monition and the leaving or mailing of said copy as herein required shall constitute notice to the owner or owners and all persons having any interest in said property.

At any time after the expiration of twenty days next following the return of the Sheriff upon such Monition, unless before the expiration of said twenty days the said judgment and costs on said judgment 'shall be paid or evidence of the payment of such taxes evidenced by a receipted tax bill or a duplicate thereof bearing date therefor prior to the filing of said lien for record in the office of the Prothonotary as aforesaid, upon application in writing by The Commissioners of Bellefonte", through its attorney, or any other person authorized on its behalf to collect taxes or assessments due to the "The Commissioners of Bellefonte", a writ of Venditioni Exponas shall issue out of the office of the said Prothonotary directed to the Sheriff commanding the Sheriff to sell the property mentioned or described in said writ and make due return of his proceedings thereunder in the same manner as is now applicable with respect to similar writ of Venditioni Exponas issued out of the said Superior Court.

Said writ shall be substantially in the following form:

New Castle County, ss.

The State of Delaware

TO THE SHERIFF OF NEW CASTLE COUNTY, GREETINGS: WHEREAS, by a Monition issued out of the Superior Court dated at Wilmington, the _____ day of _______ A. D. 19__,

IT WAS COMMANDED, that you should post the said Monition or copy thereof upon the real estate therein mentioned and described, and make a return to the said Superior Court within ten days after service of a copy of said Monition as hereafter stated.

That on the ____ day of _____ A. D. 19__, you returned that a copy of the said Monition was posted on the real estate therein mentioned and described on the ___ day of _____ A. D. 19__, and that a copy of said Monition was left, in the presence of an adult person, at the usual place of abode within New Castle County of the person in whose name the property is assessed, on the ____ day of _____ A. D. 19__, (or that a copy of said Monition was left, in the presence of an adult person, at the principal place of business in New Castle County of the corporation in whose name the property is assessed, on the day of ____ A. D. 19__, or that since said person or corporation does not reside in New Castle County or has no place of business in New Castle County, a copy of said Monition was mailed in a sealed postpaid envelope directed to the last known address or place of business of the said person or corporation, on the day of A. D. 19___.)

We therefore now command you to expose to public sale real estate mentioned and described in said Monition as follows: and that you should cause to be made as well a certain debt of _____ Dollars ($_____) lawful money of the United States, which to the said "The Commissioners of Bellefonte", a Municipal corporation of the State of Delaware, is due and owing, as also the sum of ____ Dollars ($______) lawful money as aforesaid, for its costs, which it has sustained by the detaining of that debt, whereof the said _____ was convicted as it appears of record and against which said property it is a lien:

And have you that money before the Judges of our Superior Court at Wilmington, on Monday the ______ day of next, to render to the said "The Commissioners of Bellefonte.' a municipal corporation as aforesaid, for its debt and costs as aforesaid, and this writ:

WITNESSETH, the Honorable ________ at Wilmington, the _____ day of ______ A.D. 19___.

__________________________

Prothonotary

Section 2. Any real estate or interest therein sold under the provisions hereof 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 or persons who are the owner or owners thereof, and likewise freed and discharged from any dower or courtesy or statutory right, in the nature of a dower or courtesy, whether absolute or inchoate, in or to said real estate, and from all equity of redemption and liens and encumbrances held by persons and corporations against said property.

Section 3. The owner of any such real estate sold under the provisions of this Act or his legal representatives may redeem the same at any time within one year from the day of the sale thereof, by paying to the purchaser or his legal representatives, successors or assigns, the amount of the purchase price and fifteen percent in addition thereto, together with all costs incurred in the cause; or if the purchaser or his legal representatives, successors or assigns shall refuse to receive the same, or do not reside or cannot be found within the town of Bellefonte, by paying said amount into said Court for the use of said purchasers, his legal representatives or assigns.

In the event that the owner of said property or his legal representatives shall fail to redeem said property as herein provided, the purchaser of said property or his legal representatives, successors or assigns may present a Petition to the Superior Court setting forth the appropriate facts in conformity with this Act and pray that the said Superior Court make an order directing the Sheriff, then in office, to execute, acknowledge and deliver a deed conveying the title to said property to the Petitioner; and thereupon the said Superior Court shall have power, after a hearing upon said Petition, to issue an order directing the Sheriff to execute, acknowledge and deliver a deed as prayed for in said Petition, and a description of said property by street and number or by lot number or numbers of the particular section in which said property is located, together with a description of said property made from a map of the assessed property of the Town of Bellefonte in the office of the Assessor for the Town of Bellefonte shall be sufficient description in any such deed.

If the owner of any real estate sold under an order of sale or his legal representative shall redeem said real estate, he may prefer to said Superior Court a petition setting forth that fact and thereupon the said Superior Court, after hearing and determining the facts set forth in said petition, shall have power to cause to be entered upon the record of the Judgment, under which said real estate was sold, a memorandum that the real estate described in the proceedings upon which said Judgment was entered has been redeemed and thereafter the said owner shall hold such redeemed real estate subject to the same liens and in the same order of priority as they existed at the time of the sale thereof, excepting so far as the said liens have been discharged or reduced by the application of the proceeds by the said Sheriff from the said sale.

Section 4. 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 5. No Monition 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. All taxes for town purposes which may hereafter be lawfully assessed on real estate in the town of Bellefonte shall constitute a prior lien thereon for a period of ten years from the tenth day of August succeeding the assessment of said taxes, but if the said real estate remains the property of the person to whom it is assessed, then the lien shall constitute until the tax is collected, and may, with all incidental costs and expenses, be levied by sale thereof as herein-before provided. The said tax lien and costs and reasonable counsel fees for the collection thereof shall be fully paid and satisfied before any recognizance, mortgage, judgment, debt, obligation or responsibility which the real estate may become charged with or liable to. The Commissioners of "The Commissioners of Bellefonte" shall have the authority to authorize any person or persons to make a bid or bids at the sale of any real estate under the provisions of this Act and in the event that such person or persons is the highest and best bidder or bidders therefor, the title thereto shall be taken in the name of "The Commissioners of Bellefonte", a municipal corporation of the State of Delaware. The Commissions of "The Commissioners of Bellefonte", by resolution duly adopted, are authorized and empowered to sell and convey any real estate purchased under the provisions of this Act.

Section 6. Wherever the Superior Court is mentioned in this Statute, the same shall be held to embrace the Judges or any Judge thereof, and any act required or authorized to be done under this Act may be done by the said Superior Court or any Judge thereof in vacation thereof, as well as in term time.

Section 7. The fees and costs to be taxed in all Monition proceedings under this Act, where not otherwise provided for, shall be as follows:

The following fees shall be charged by the Prothonotary:

Filing any Petition in Superior Court under this Act 1.00

Costs of paying money into Superior Court 1.00

Cost of paying money out of Superior Court for each check drawn 1.00

The following fees shall be charged the Sheriff:

Posting Monition or copy thereof .75

Posting each Alias or Pluries Monition or copy thereof 75

All other charges not covered by this Act shall be the same as are now provided by law.

Section 8. In addition to the foregoing procedure for the collection of delinquent taxes, the Commissioners of "The Commissioners of Bellefonte" shall have the authority to employ or cause to be employed such procedure for the collection of delinquent taxes due "The Commissioners of Bellefonte" as is set forth in Chapter 135, 1155 Section 11, of Volume 40, Laws of Delaware, so far as the same refers to the attachment of personal property. The defendant in any such writ of attachment shall not be entitled to the benefit of any of the exemption laws of the State of Delaware and all persons, firms, associations, corporations, public and private, including banks, trust companies, savings institutions, loan associations and insurance companies, and public officers and the agents, servants and trustees of the said defendant shall be liable to be summoned as garnishee for which purpose service of the summons as provided in other attachment cases shall be sufficient to render * said persons and the officers of the said corporations subject to all the liabilities provided by law and the answer of such person and of such officers so served with said attachment shall be enforced in the same manner as is now provided by law in other cases.

Approved May 20, 1937.