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Monday, May 17, 2010
Ind. Decisions - "Appeals court upholds lawsuit against Lake auditor"
Friday's COA deicision in the case of Ralph Hullett, et al. v. James Lafevre, et al. (ILB summary here, 3rd case) is the subject of a story today by Dan Carden in the NWI Times.
An error made by the Lake County auditor's office means the man who purchased a Lake Station home at a tax sale must return it to the original owners.The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that Ralph Hullett, who bought the home at a July 2007 tax sale, cannot keep it because the county auditor failed to adequately notify the original owners the home was to be sold.
James and Jeremy LaFevre owned the home on three property lots in Lake Station, all with the same combined address in the 2100 block of Fairview Street. In 2002, the tax billing address for one of the lots was changed to a Valparaiso address, while the address of record for the remaining two lots remained the Lake Station address.
The LaFevres paid the taxes on the lot they were billed for at the Valparaiso address, but taxes were not paid for several years on the other two lots. Notice of a pending tax sale was sent by the auditor to the Lake Station address, but returned by the post office as undeliverable.
After Hullett bought the home on the two lots at the tax sale, he also sent notice of his purchase to the Lake Station address listed in the auditor's records. That notice also was not delivered.
Nine days after the tax sale to Hullett was finalized by a Lake County judge, the LaFevres sued to overturn the sale.
Hullett argued he had followed the law and sent notice as required to the address listed in the tax records and is entitled to keep the property.
However, the appeals court said the office of Lake County Auditor Peggy Katona was required by state law to check its records for another possible owner address when the tax sale notices sent to the Lake Station address were returned by the post office.
"If the auditor had undertaken a search, it would have discovered that LaFevres owned Parcel 006, which is contiguous to Parcels 007 and 008, and has the same street address but a different mailing address," wrote Senior Judge John Sharpnack in the court's 3-0 decision.
"The auditor is deemed to have been aware of the Valparaiso mailing address for the LaFevres," Sharpnack said.
As a result of the auditor's error, the court invalidated Hullett's purchase of the Lake Station home and reverted ownership rights back to the LaFevres.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 17, 2010 09:50 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions