Delinquent Tax Sales Nullified
A judicial decision wipes the slate clean for Hoquiam property owners, declaring tax liens expired.
Judge Irwin filed a decision last week in the case of Chehalis County vs. Unknown, in which Ed Campbell, owner of certain lots in Hoquiam against which judgment had been obtained and an order of sale issued for delinquent taxes, applied for an order to have the judgment set aside. The petition was granted on the grounds that the law providing for the collection of delinquent taxes for 1890 specifically declares that all liens against property for taxes of that year ceased on the first day of November, 1892; consequently, all sales after that date are void. In his decision, the Judge noted that while it is difficult to see through the mazes of the present revenue laws of this state, the consequences are that liens for delinquent taxes of 1890 have been lost and must be collected, if at all, by some other proceeding than by foreclosure of the lien.
“It is difficult to see through the mazes of the present revenue laws of this state.”
This ruling highlights how confusing property law has been in Washington since the state's inception. Even in the 1890s, bureaucratic errors and 'mazes' of revenue law were leaving property owners in legal limbo, a struggle that persists today in local tax assessment and housing equity disputes.
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