Chap. 391.—An ACT to Provide for Placing on the Commissioners’ Books
the Lands in the Commonwealth and to Amend Sections 2, 18, 20, 25
and 28 of Chapter 37, Code of 1860, in Relation to the Sales of For-
feited and Delinquent Lands, and for other Purposes,

Approved April 2, 1873.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That any person
owning or claiming real estate in this commonwealth shall, on
or by the first day of December, eighteen hundred and seventy-
three, cause the same, if not already there, to be placed on the
land books of the county or corporation in which said land is
situated. Where the lands are situated partly in one county
and partly in another, the owner or claimant thereof shall see
that the same is registered upon the books of the county in
which said part is so situated.

2. If the said owner or claimant shall fail to register his
lands on or by the time specified in the first section of this act,
then the same shall be deemed delinquent, and the same pro-
ceedings be liable to be had thereon as lands returned by the
treasurer or tax collectors delinquent for the non-payment of
taxes. ;

3. The duties imposed on sheriffs or collectors by chapter
thirty-seven, Code of eighteen hundred and sixty, shall here-
after be performed by the treasurers of the counties, cities and:
towns of this commonwealth ; and said sheriffs are hereby re-
lieved from further duties under said thirty-seventh chapter.
The said treasurers shall have the same pay and commissions
allowed sheriffs or collectors under said chapter.

4. And be it further enacted, That sections two, eighteen,
twenty, twenty-five and twenty-eight of chapter thirty-seven
(Code of eighteen hundred and sixty), be and the same are
hereby amended so as to read as follows:

§ 2. In the months of July, August and September, in the
year eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and in one of these !
months every three years thereafter, the said auditor shall ,
cause to be delivered to the treasurer of each county and cor-?
poration a list of the real estate therein which, since the tenth *
day of March, eighteen hundred and thirty- two, shall have been
or hereafter shall be returned delinquent for the non-payment
of taxes, either for state or county purposes, and on which the
taxes remain unpaid, with a statement of the amount.due for
such taxes on each tract or lot so returned, and for interest on
such taxes, and whether the same has heretofore been sold and
purchased by the state under section twenty-five, chapter
thirty-seven, Code of eighteen hundred and sixty.

§ 18. When the clerk is himself a purchaser, the deed for the F
land purchased by him shall be executed by a commissioner in
chancery, appointed by the circuit court of the county or cor- ¢
poration wherein the land is situated.

§ 20. If the clerk or commissioner refuse to execute any E
deed as aforesaid, the court to which the clerk or commissioner §;
belongs may compel its execution by other special commis-
sioner or commissioners of said court. All such deeds as are I
mentioned. in this act or chapter thirty-seven, Code of eighteen ¢!
hundred and sixty, shall be with covenants of special warranty. ©

§ 25. When any real estate is offered for sale, as aforesaid, by :
the treasurer, and no person present bids the amount to be *
satisfied from the sale thereof, the treasurer shall purchase the °
same on behalf of the commonwealth for the taxes due thereon
and the interest on the same, and its proportionate part of the
expenses of advertising, unless such tract or lot has heretofore 1
been purchased in by the commonwealth, in which case the ?
officer making the sale shall sell for such price as may be bid k
therefor. A list of the real estate so purchased by the com- L
monwealth shall be made out by the treasurer, and attached *;
thereto a list of the lands sold of which the commonwealth has
heretofore been the purchaser, and the price obtained therefor
and the name of the purchaser. After it shall have been veri- C
fied by him on oath, the court of his county or corporation ¢
shall direct its clerk to make out copies thereof and deliver
one to township commissioners of his county, and shall cause
a copy thereof to be certified to the auditor of public accounts.
Upon receiving the said lists, the auditor shall credit the trea- p
surer with the amounts for which the said real estate may have
been purchased or sold, but without commissions. The trea-T
surer, on or before the ‘first day of sale for delinquent lands, ©
required under this act, is fully authorized and empowered, f
upon proper evidence adduced before him, to correct any errors
that may appear in the lists of delinquent or purchased lands
delivered him under the second and twenty-eighth sections of
this act, by allowing to the claimant or owner of such lands q
credit for any payment of taxes made by him to the proper “
officer for the year or years for which said lands were returned
delinquent, or for taxes paid since that time, and where at any
sale of lands heretofore made any person other than the com-
monwealth shall have become the purchaser thereof,-upon the
production to said treasurer of the receipts or other evidence
of the payment by the purchaser to the proper officer of the
purchase money, the rights of the purchaser thereof, upon the
payment of all the taxes subsequently accrued thereon, shall
be protection as if all the requirements of the law had been
fully complied with. A correct and condensed statement of all
errors corrected by him under this section shall be returned to
the court as provided for by the twelfth section of chapter
thirty-seven, Code eighteen hundred and sixty, and the court,
if satisfied of the correctness of such statement, shall certify
the same to the auditor.

§ 28. In the months of July, August and September, in the
year eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and in one of these
months every three years thereafter, the said auditor shall cause
to be delivered to the treasurer of each county or corporation
a list of the real estate therein so purchased by the common-
wealth at sales for taxes and remaining unredeemed, with the
statement of the amount which would have been necessary to
pay into the treasury on each parcel to effect a redemption
thereof according to the preceding sections, and proceedings
thereon shall be had according to the third, twenty-fifth and
other sections of this act, and chapter thirty-seven of the Code
eighteen hundred and sixty, mutatis mutandis.

5. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby tepealed.

6. This act shall be in force from its passage.