West Virginia Appeals Court Voids 2013 Tax Deed Over Double Assessment

The West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court’s order granting summary judgment to defendants and declaring the 2013 tax deed void. The dispute involved a 93-acre tract where mineral rights were severed in 1903 but were not separately assessed. The court applied the longstanding common law presumption that when severed mineral estates are not separately assessed, they are deemed assessed together with the surface estate. As a result, the later tax sale based on a purported separate mineral assessment constituted a double assessment and rendered the 2013 tax deed void ab initio. The decision reinforces limitations on ...