This is a proceeding involving the question of the validity of a sale for taxes of lot 5, in block 140, situated in the United States reservation of the Hot Springs, in Garland County, Ark. It was commenced by a petition filed July 22, 1887, in the circuit court of that county, by R. W. Martin, to confirm his taxtitle to the lot in question. The petition was brought under certain sections forming part of chapter 23, headed 'Confirmation of Titles,' of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas of 1884, the sections being numbered from 576 to 583, both inclusive, and being set forth in the margin.
The petition states that the lot in question, being a town lot in the city of Hot Springs in the county of Garland, was delinquent for the non-payment of the taxes of the year 1884; that the lot was duly offered for sale by the collector of the county, and was struck off to the state of Arkansas; that the time for the redemption of the lot having expired, it was duly certified to the commissioner of state lands by the county clerk of Garland county, as required by law; that the petitioner applied to the said commissioner to purchase the lot, and, upon the payment to the commissioner of $110.95, received from him on the 16th of June, 1887, a deed, No. 8,867, covering the lot; and that the petitioner paid for the deed the sum of $1, and was the owner of the lot by virtue of such conveyance, and had given the notice required by law, and was entitled to a decree confirming his title. He therefore prayed that his title to the lot be confirmed. On the 31st of August, 1887, Frances M. Barbour and her three infant children, all under the age of fourteen years, by their next friend, Ormand Barbour, served a notice upon the commissioner of state lands for the state of Arkansas, that the lot in question was the property of the three minors, held in trust for them, at the time of the supposed forfeiture, by their mother, said Frances M. Barbour, who was now the wife of said Ormand Barbour. The notice stated that the minors and the mother applied to be permitted to redeem the lot, by paying the taxes, penalty, and costs, and interest, charges, and fees, for which they tendered the mony. To this notice the commissioner replied, on the 3d of September, 1887, that the land had been sold by the state, and they could not redeem from the state, but must redeem from Martin, and through the courts, if necessary. On the 10th of September, 1887, the three minors and their mother filed their answer and cross-bill to the petition of Martin, setting up that the minors were the children and the only heirs of Franklin J. Munger, deceased, who died in December, 1881; that the deed of June 16, 1887, and all the proceedings on which it was granted, were void as to them, by reason of the coverture of the mother and the infancy of the three children; and that they were entitled to redeem the lot under the tender they had made.