TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 5 



THE FOEFEITED TAX LAND. 



The primary subject for our consideration is the State land which the 

 act refers to as "delinquent State tax land." The act itself makes it 

 entirely clear that the land in question is that which has been, or shall 

 hereafter be, owned by the State by reason of forfeiture of the title for 

 non-payment of taxes by the former owner. For convenience we desig- 

 nate this land in this report as forfeited tax land. It includes the tax 

 homestead land in the Land Office, and the State tax land in the Auditor 

 General's Department. 



The title to this forfeited tax land is acquired by the State under the 

 present tax law as follows : The owner having failed to pay taxes with- 

 in the time prescribed by law, the land is returned to the county treas- 

 urer, and in the spring following the year for which the tax was Jevied, 

 it is returned by the latter to the Auditor General, who applies, early 

 in the year next following, to the circuit court in chancery of the county 

 where the land is located. His petition sets up that the land is deliiji- 

 quent for taxes, and asks that the court by its decree fix the amount 

 due and direct a sale of the land therefor, unless the amount be paid 

 before a date specified. Pursuant to this decree, the land is offered 

 for sale at the county treasurer's office in the May following the decree, 

 that is, in May of the third year following that for which the tax was 

 laid. The sale held, for example, in May, 1907, was for the taxes of 

 1904. At this sale, land which is not bid in by individuals, is struck 

 off, or bid, to the State by the county treasurer, and is so returned to 

 the Auditor General. It then remains subject to redemption by the 

 owner for one year. If it is not redeemed within this year, it becomes 

 State tax land and goes on to the State tax land list. At this point, 

 the original owner's title is cut off; the State has become, as against 

 him, the absolute owner. Hickey vs. Eutledge, 136 Mich. 128; Alcona 

 Co. vs. Aud. Gen., 136 Mich. 133. Under the present tax law, the Audi- 

 tor General is not required to deed to the State such State tax land 

 until, upon examination, it is found to have been delinquent for five 

 years or more, and to be abandoned. The title of the State, however, 

 does not rest upon this deed, but accrues at the end of the year of re- 

 demption before mentioned. Jackson & R. Co. vs. Lumber Co., 146 

 Mich. 207; Gibson vs. Comr., 121 Mich. 50; Alcona Co. vs. Aud. Gen., 

 138 Mich. 499. The purpose and function of the Auditor General's deed 

 is not to convey title to the State, but to convert what was State tax 

 land into tax homestead land, and to transfer the same to the jurisdic- 

 tion of the State Land Office so as to bring it within the operation and 

 effect of the law relating to homesteads and to sales. Platz vs. Engle- 

 hardt, 138 Mich. 489. The origin of the State's title, both to the tax 

 homestead land and State tax land, is in the original owner's continued 

 failure to pay taxes, and in the proceedings taken under the tax law 

 and under the decree of the court of chancery. Both are equally for- 

 feited tax land, and are clearly within the contemplation and purpose of 

 the act creating this Commission of Inquiry. 



It appears from the foregoing that no land can appear upon the State 

 tax land list until it has been delinquent three years, and that no land 

 can, by the Auditor General's deed, be converted into tax homestead 



