17-A - Abandonment of claims under defective tax sales; recovery of taxes paid thereon by state.

§ 17-a. Abandonment  of  claims under defective tax sales; recovery of  taxes paid thereon by state.  Where the claim of title of the  state  to  any  land  is  based  on  a  tax sale, which title in the opinion of the  attorney-general would be declared void by the courts, the  commissioner  of  general  services,  on  the  filing with him of such opinion and the  evidence upon which such opinion was based, may, by order,  abandon  any  claim  of title to such land, but, notwithstanding such abandonment, the  people of the state shall have a lien upon the real property affected by  the abandonment, prior and superior to all other liens, for  the  amount  of  all taxes, fees and charges admitted or paid by the people upon such  real property to the date of the abandonment of  the  state's  claim  of  title,  together  with  interest  thereon  from  the  dates  of payment.  Provided such lien remains unpaid after the expiration of one year  from  the  date of the abandonment, the people of the state may foreclose such  lien as a mortgage on real property  is  foreclosed;  but  in  any  such  action  establishment  of  payments  of  taxes  on said land or any part  thereof by the adjudged or admitted owner of the property during any  of  the  same  years  in  which payments were also made by the people of the  state shall reduce the lien of the people by the larger of the  two  tax  payments  for  each  of the years affected by duplicate payments, and in  the event that wholly identical areas are not affected by the  duplicate  payments  the  court shall have power to apportion and adjust the amount  of the lien as equity may require.   This remedy  for  recovery  of  tax  payments  shall  be  in  addition  to  any other remedy now or hereafter  available in law or in equity, and shall be  without  prejudice  to  any  defense or offset available to an adverse claimant in law or in equity.