Volume V

Issue : 12: June 14, 2007

• Lawsuit Launched Against Popular Online Dating Service Based on Websites Exclusion of Gays
• Ontario Court Orders Husband to Produce Hard Drive of Personal Computer in Family Law Proceedings
• Canada Proposes Criminal Code Amendment to Combat Unauthorized Recording of Movies
• Standards Set for Digital Signatures
• CIRA Disallows Complaint Over yellowpage.ca
• Settlement in Rigged Bidding Allegation on eBay
• US ISPs Starting to Charge for "Guaranteed" Email Delivery
• Ontario Court Bars Opposing Counsel from Utilizing Email Sent by Mistake
• Broadcom Adds ITC Order to its Jury Award in Qualcomm Dispute
• "Googling" Delinquent Tax Payer Not Sufficient in Tax Seizure Action

Home > Volume V > Issue 12: June 14, 2007 > "Googling" Delinquent Tax Payer Not Sufficient in Tax Seizure Action

"Googling" Delinquent Tax Payer Not Sufficient in Tax Seizure Action

Charles Fernandez has been vindicated as the owner of a vacant lot in Easton, Pennsylvania after his successful appeal from a lower court ruling that upheld the local tax bureau’s actions in selling off Mr. Fernandez’s property for back taxes.

The County of Northampton was owed $395.36 for property tax arrears on Mr. Fernandez’s lot in this community north of Philadelphia. It attempted to contact the owner by “Googling” his name which returned an address and telephone number for “Chuck” Fernandez. A call to the telephone number indicated it was not in service and the registered mail to the address came back undeliverable.

The County then posted a notice on the property and subsequently sold it in January 2005. Mr. Fernandez became aware of all of this for the first time in March 2005 when he contacted the county about paying his taxes.

An application to the County Court resulted in that court ruling that the procedure followed by the County tax authorities was sufficient to meet their statutory obligation regarding the sale of property to satisfy the payment of tax arrears.

However, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania disagreed. That court found that it was not enough to search online through the Google search engine to give the property owner notice of the tax arrears and sale of the property. The Court held that the statutory requirements regarding the steps the tax bureau must take are clear and it failed to meet these statutory requirements.

The lesson that should be taken from this case is that Google is a quick, convenient and efficient way to find information on a casual basis but it cannot be relied upon to meet the strict requirements that may be required under law. A good system of ensuring that all of the proper steps have been taken is still a requirement even in our current environment of high-speed, online, information gathering.

For a copy of the decision ( Commonwealth Court) visit:

http://www.courts.state.pa.us/OpPosting/CWealth/out/1600CD06_5-31-07.pdf