US: Supreme Court seems to favour woman who got $0 in condo sale

The Supreme Court seemed likely to give a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman another day in court to try to recoup some money after the county kept the entire $40,000 when it sold her condominium over a small unpaid tax bill.

The justices seemed in broad agreement with arguments by the lawyer for Geraldine Tyler that Hennepin County, Minnesota, violated the Constitution's prohibition on the taking of private property without “just compensation.”

“At bottom, she's saying the county took her property and made a profit on her surplus equity. It belongs to her,” Justice Clarence Thomas said.

Tyler, who now lives in an apartment building for older people, owed $2,300 in unpaid taxes, plus interest and penalties, when the county took title to the one-bedroom apartment in 2015. The county said she did nothing to hold onto her one-time residence. The apartment sold the next year.

Justices Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch said the county's position appeared to be that it could seize million-dollar properties over tiny tax bills.

Neal Katyal, representing the county, said Tyler made clear she wanted nothing to do with the condo in the five years she owed back taxes.

“Why on earth would she walk away from her home? The reason, we think, is there was no equity in her home,” Katyal said. The justices could leave it to a lower court to sort out the money details.

Katyal tried to appeal to the conservative justices in particular by references to history and the invocation of the court's recent rulings overturning Roe v. Wade and expanding gun rights.

But there didn't appear to be any takers in the court's final arguments until its new term begins in October.

Minnesota is among roughly a dozen states and the District of Columbia that allow local jurisdictions to keep the excess money, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing Tyler at the Supreme Court.

At least 8,950 homes were sold because of unpaid taxes and the former owners received little or nothing in those states between 2014 and 2021, according to Pacific Legal, a not-for-profit public interest law firm focused on property rights.

Other states are: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and South Dakota, the group said.

There has been no explanation about why Tyler stopped paying her property taxes when she moved from the condo, where she had lived since 1999. She moved for “health and safety” reasons, Pacific Legal said.

The county said in court papers that Tyler could have sold the property and kept whatever was left after paying off the mortgage and taxes, refinanced her mortgage to pay the tax bill or signed up for a tax payment plan.

A decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, 22-166, is expected by late June.