{
  "id": 8527129,
  "name": "SARA B. BRADBURY v. RALPH EUGENE CUMMINGS and the unknown heirs and/or assigns of JOSEPH FAIN a/k/a JAMES FAINES and JOSEPH N. FAINES, Deceased, THE CITY OF NEW BERN, a municipal corporation, and CRAVEN COUNTY, a body politic of the State of North Carolina",
  "name_abbreviation": "Bradbury v. Cummings",
  "decision_date": "1984-05-01",
  "docket_number": "No. 833DC735",
  "first_page": "302",
  "last_page": "305",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "68 N.C. App. 302"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C. Ct. App.",
    "id": 14983,
    "name": "North Carolina Court of Appeals"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 1-56",
      "category": "laws:leg_statute",
      "reporter": "N.C. Gen. Stat.",
      "year": 1983,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 105-360",
      "category": "laws:leg_statute",
      "reporter": "N.C. Gen. Stat.",
      "year": 1979,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 105-378",
      "category": "laws:leg_statute",
      "reporter": "N.C. Gen. Stat.",
      "pin_cites": [
        {
          "page": "(a)(1979)"
        }
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7\u00a7 105-371",
      "category": "laws:leg_statute",
      "reporter": "N.C. Gen. Stat.",
      "weight": 2,
      "opinion_index": 0
    }
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:24:21.303361+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Judges Wells and Johnson concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "SARA B. BRADBURY v. RALPH EUGENE CUMMINGS and the unknown heirs and/or assigns of JOSEPH FAIN a/k/a JAMES FAINES and JOSEPH N. FAINES, Deceased, THE CITY OF NEW BERN, a municipal corporation, and CRAVEN COUNTY, a body politic of the State of North Carolina"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "BECTON, Judge.\nI\nOn 19 October 1982, plaintiff brought this action pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7\u00a7 105-371, -372, -374 (1979), to foreclose certain tax liens for ad valorem taxes on real estate due the City of New Bern for the years 1933 through 1968, with the exception of the year 1943. Plaintiff had purchased the tax lien sale certificates from the City on 16 August 1978 for the purchase price of $359.78. The defendants filed answers raising the statute of limitations as a defense. The defendants also filed motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. District Court Judge Horton Rountree denied the Rule 12(b)(6) motions of Ralph Cummings and of the guardian for the unknown heirs, but granted the motion filed by the City of New Bern to dismiss the action as to the City. Subsequently, District Court Judge W. Lee Lumpkin, III, granted summary judgment for plaintiff, and the remaining defendants appealed.\nII\nDefendants style the question presented as follows: \u201cDid the trial court commit reversible error in denying the defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss and in granting plaintiffs motion for summary judgment where action was brought fourteen years after it accrued?\u201d We answer the issue, \u201cYes.\u201d\nN.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 105-378(a)(1979) provides as follows:\nNo county or municipality may maintain an action or procedure to enforce any remedy provided by law for the collection of taxes or the enforcement of any tax liens (whether the taxes or tax liens are evidenced by the original tax receipts, tax sales certificates, or otherwise) unless the action or procedure is instituted within 10 years from the date the taxes became due.\nAs can be seen, the taxing unit \u2014 the municipality \u2014 would be barred from maintaining any action or procedure to enforce for the collection of the taxes in question unless the action or procedure was instituted within ten years from the date the taxes became due. Taxes are due on the first day of September of the taxable year. N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 105-360 (1979). Consequently, at the time the plaintiff purchased or took an assignment of tax liens from the City of New Bern, the City would have been barred by G.S. \u00a7 105-378 from maintaining any action to collect the taxes, except the taxes that were delinquent for the year 1968. That tax lien was barred by the statute of limitations one month later.\nWe have not overlooked plaintiffs argument that G.S. \u00a7 105-378, by its specific terms, refers to \u201ccounty\u201d or \u201cmunicipality.\u201d Although private holders of tax lien sale certificates are not mentioned in G.S. \u00a7 105-378, we believe the statute nevertheless applies to private holders. N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 105-371 (1979) provides that the lien of the purchasers of tax lien sale certificates \u201cshall be of the same dignity\u201d as the lien of the taxing unit. To allow the plaintiff to enforce a lien more than fourteen years after the most recent tax has become due would give her rights of greater dignity than those of the taxing unit from which she acquired the lien certificates. We do not believe the legislature intended for taxing units to assign barred claims to individuals who would then serve as collection agents for the taxing unit and thereby circumvent the limitation placed on the taxing units by G.S. \u00a7 105-378.\nAs a further basis for our ruling, we note that an action to foreclose a tax lien is a civil action and that N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 1-56 (1983) bars civil actions commenced more than ten years after the action accrues.\nFor the foregoing reasons, the orders of the trial court denying defendants\u2019 Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss and granting summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff are\nReversed.\nJudges Wells and Johnson concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "BECTON, Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Lee, Hancock, Lasitter & King, by C. E. Hancock, Jr. and John W. King, Jr., for defendant appellant Ralph Eugene Cummings.",
      "Perdue, Voerman & Alford, by Benjamin G. Alford, for defendant appellants the unknown heirs and/or assigns of Joseph Fain a/k/a James Faines and Joseph N. Faines, deceased.",
      "Henderson & Baxter, P.A., by B. Hunt Baxter, Jr., for plaintiff appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "SARA B. BRADBURY v. RALPH EUGENE CUMMINGS and the unknown heirs and/or assigns of JOSEPH FAIN a/k/a JAMES FAINES and JOSEPH N. FAINES, Deceased, THE CITY OF NEW BERN, a municipal corporation, and CRAVEN COUNTY, a body politic of the State of North Carolina\nNo. 833DC735\n(Filed 1 May 1984)\nTaxation \u00a7 34\u2014 tax lien \u2014 private holder \u2014 statute of limitations precluding foreclosure\nAn action brought by plaintiff pursuant to G.S. 105-371, 372, 374, to foreclose certain tax liens for ad valorem taxes on real estate due the City of New Bern for the years 1933 through 1968 was barred by G.S. 105-378(a) since the action was not instituted within ten years from the date the taxes became due. Although private holders of tax lien sale certificates are not mentioned in G.S. 105-378, the Court found the statute to also apply to them. G.S. 105-371 and G.S. 1-56.\nAPPEAL by defendant Ralph Cummings and the unknown heirs and/or assigns of Joseph Fain a/k/a James Faines and Joseph N. Faines, deceased, from the Order denying their Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss entered by Rountree, Judge, on 18 January 1983, in District Court, Craven County, and from the Order granting summary judgment for the plaintiff, entered by Lumpkin, Judge, on 27 May 1983 in District Court, CRAVEN County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 13 April 1984.\nLee, Hancock, Lasitter & King, by C. E. Hancock, Jr. and John W. King, Jr., for defendant appellant Ralph Eugene Cummings.\nPerdue, Voerman & Alford, by Benjamin G. Alford, for defendant appellants the unknown heirs and/or assigns of Joseph Fain a/k/a James Faines and Joseph N. Faines, deceased.\nHenderson & Baxter, P.A., by B. Hunt Baxter, Jr., for plaintiff appellee.\n. By order of this Court, filed 20 October 1983, Benjamin G. Alford was allowed to withdraw from the case, and a substitute guardian ad litem was later appointed."
  },
  "file_name": "0302-01",
  "first_page_order": 334,
  "last_page_order": 337
}