Practice — Judgments — Declaratory — Lands purchased by County Commissioners at County Treasurer's sales — Distribution of rentals — Acts of June 18, 1923, P. L. 840 and May 22, 1935, P. L. 228.
1. A petition for a declaratory judgment is a proper type of proceeding to determine the basis of distribution among various taxing authorities of rents from real estate purchased by the county commissioners at judicial sales for unpaid taxes and not redeemed by the former owners within the statutory period. [263-5]
2. The possible existence of a remedy by mandamus does not oust the jurisdiction of a court of common pleas to decide a legal question in a declaratory judgment proceeding under the Act of June 18, 1923, P. L. 840, as amended. [263-4]
3. A remedy by a declaratory judgment may be more swift, certain and complete than the remedy provided by a bill in equity for an accounting in that appropriate rules of distribution can be stated in the former type of proceeding. [264]
4. The Act of May 22, 1935, P. L. 228, amending the Declaratory Judgments Act, constitutes a mandate from the legislature to the courts to get on with the business of deciding the people's questions for them. [264-5]
Constitutional law — Title — Sufficiency — Acts of May 26, 1943, P. L. 645, and June 18, 1923, P. L. 840.
5. The Act of May 26, 1943, P. L. 645, amending the Declaratory Judgments Act of June 18, 1923, P. L. 840, is not unconstitutional on the ground that its subject is not clearly expressed in its title. [265]
Taxation — County Treasurer's sales — Purchase by County Commissioners — Rentals — Distribution to taxing authority — Individual accounts — Unpaid taxes — Act of May 29, 1931, P. L. 280.
6. Where lands are purchased by the County Commissioners at tax sales and not redeemed by the former owners during the statutory period, in determining the rights of the various interested taxing authorities to the rents, each property should be accounted for separately. [265]
7. Where lands are purchased by the County Commissioners at tax sales and not redeemed by the former owners during the period of time allowed by law, in determining the proportion of the rents due any taxing authority, the amount due it is to be determined under the Act of May 29, 1931, P. L. 280, as amended, by adding to the unpaid taxes at the time of sale taxes for two full years thereafter. [265-6]
8. In distributing the rentals from such lands among the various interested taxing authorities, if money enough is realized to pay all taxes the taxing authorities share proportionately; if not the oldest taxes are paid first in order of seniority. [266-7]
9. Rentals from such lands cannot be distributed until the lands from which they have been derived have been sold. [266-7]
10. There is no priority among the taxes of the various taxing authorities for the same year. [266]
Argued September 25, 1945.
PER CURIAM, November 26, 1945:
This appeal is from a final decree in a proceeding under the Declaratory Judgment Act of 1923, as amended, which prays for a declaration of rights determining the proportion in which taxing authorities, county, city, school district and institution district, are entitled to the rents from real estate purchased by County Commissioners at County Treasurer's Sales and not redeemed by the former owners during the period of time allowed by law.
The taxing authorities have been unable to agree upon a satisfactory basis for distribution thereof because different "methods" of distribution have been pressed by some of the parties and opposed by others until an actual controversy exists. At the time of the hearing there were about 204 properties from which rents had been so received, and there was then more than $50,000 in the rent fund. The question is who gets the rentals collected from such properties while the county owns them, and upon what basis is division of the rentals to be made.
The learned court below, by its President Judge, Honorable W. WALTER BRAHAM, answered these questions in a satisfactory way in an able and thorough opinion. We cannot add anything helpful to what has been done. We therefore affirm on its opinion the final decree of the learned court below.
Decree affirmed.