CHAPTER 476
OF THE LIEN OF TAXES.
AN ACT in relation to the lien of taxes.
Re it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met,
SECTION 1. That all taxes laid and imposed by the Levy Court of a county, or by the State for its own purposes, shall be and constitute a lien upon all the real estate of the taxable against or upon where* such taxes are laid and imposed, of which such taxable was seized at any time after the first day of
March in the year in which such taxes were so laid as aforesaid, situate in the county in which such taxes are assessed and collectible, and such lien shall have preference and priority to all other liens on such real estate created or suffered by the said taxable, although such other lien or liens be of a date prior .
to the time of the attaching of such lien for taxes. But in case of the sale under execution process, of any real estate upon which such tax-lien shall exist, such lien shall be transferred to the fund arising from such sale in the hands of the officer making the same, and the real estate so sold shall be discharged therefrom ; Provided, that if such fund shall not be sufficient to pay and discharge the said tax-lien, by reason of the said real estate having been sold subject to another or other lien or liens created by the said taxable, then the unpaid balance of said tax shall remain a lien upon the land so sold.
And, provided, that the lien for taxes hereby prescribed, shall remain a lien for the period of two years from the first day of March of the year in which such tax shall have been imposed, and no longer. The collectors, in collecting taxes out of real estate upon which they are a lien under the provisions of this act, shall proceed in the manner now by law prescribed for the collection of taxes out of real estate. But in no case of sale, under execution process as aforesaid, shall the lien of such taxes be transferred to the fund arising from such sale, unless it shall sufficiently appear that the collector, charged with the collection of such tax, has exercised due diligence and exhausted all legal process in his efforts to collect the same out of the personal and other property of the taxable or his tenant subject thereto and liable therefor, before such real estate could be seized for such tax.
SECTION 2. That the provisions of this act shall apply to taxes imposed during the present year, but not to such as have been imposed prior to the present year.
SECTION 3. That the act entitled " An act in relation to the lien of taxes," passed March 15, 1875, being chapter 183, of the 15th volume of the Laws of Delaware, and all other acts or parts of acts, inconsistent with this act, be and the same are hereby repealed.
Passed at Dover, March 2o, 1877.
*So, enrolled.