The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 today that the state of Arkansas was wrong to take away a Little Rock man’s home due to non-payment of property taxes.
In the case, the state had mailed certified letters to the address, which had been returned undeliverable, and posted a notice in the newspaper of the impending taking, after Gary Jones stopped paying property taxes. The Supreme Court said that the state didn’t do enough to contact Jones and notify him of the action.
Noting that the certified mail sent to 717 North Bryan had been returned because Mr. Jones was not there to sign for it, the chief justice wrote, “In response to the returned form suggesting that Jones had not received notice that he was about to lose his property, the state did — nothing.”
Joining the chief justice were Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Their ruling overturned decisions by the Arkansas Supreme Court and a lower state court, which had found against Mr. Jones in holding that the state had met its obligations. — New York Times
As it turns out, Jones apparently forgot about it. His mortgage company had been making the property tax payments for him, and when his house was paid off, he had never sent in any further property tax payments.
The Times has more details on the case, but the upshot is that this decision will make it much more difficult for a state to seize the property of people who fail for whatever reason to pay property taxes.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.
Video published by this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling+ license.
Bad Behavior has blocked 3285 access attempts in the last 7 days.
Facebook
Digg
del.icio.us
reddit.com
Newsvine
Rob Davidson
Apr 26, 2006
It’s about time they got one right!
Firas
Apr 26, 2006
Due process? Nevermind due bloody process, Holy f, what an insane procedure, taking posession of someone’s property for non-payment of taxes? It’s probably not as if he owed enough in taxes for A HOUSE to be equal compensation!
JJ Owens
Apr 27, 2006
I find it amazing the powers the state & local agencies take & abuse without intervention! It’s nice to see someone brought this to the Federal Supreme Court and bring this abuse of power to a halt. Let’s hope many more stand & fight for thier RIGHTS!!!!!! Now if we can only find someone to over rule the Internal Revenue Service in many of their immoral acts of “SIEZURE”…
John Pinckney
May 12, 2006
I did not file tax returns for the years 2001-2004. I did file extensions and sent in checks to cover any possible tax liability. I have now completed the returns and find that I am owed refunds. However after contacting the IRS I found that my rights to refunds for the years 2001-2003 have expired. Where is the due process? They did send me a notice (by first class mail) to contact them. There is in the notice language to the effect that failure to pay can cause civil and criminal penalties but there is nothing about rights to refunds expiring. What should I do?
Paula Faultersack
Oct 18, 2006
WHat to do? Just notified by a letter taped to my door that my spouse and I
and I owe taxes from 2004. I took a check to the City and they gave me a PAID Pd. receipt, City sent check to bank a week later, it had insufficient funds,
so they say, I have no way of telling back to 2004. Can’t believe it,
always balance my checkbook, I should be 2000K over if the check didn’t g
go thru, that would have been an awakening to me something was wrong.
Bank shows check as NSF, said would have been sent back to City…still pur
pursing. Point is County Treasurer claims letters were sent to my home (my
(my old address) then letters sent to my new address addressed to
occupant, can’t be occupant it’s a P.O. Box? Now we owe $1000 in fines? S