Pung v. Isabella County · ¶84

Two related limits are most relevant when the government takes an entire home to pay for a small tax debt, as it did to the Pungs. First, the government had to try to sell the taxpayer’s personal property before it moved on his real property. “[B]efore the power to sell the land can exist,” the government was required to first show “the demand . . . and return of no goods.” R. Blackwell, A Practical Treatise on the Power to Sell Land for the Non-Payment of Taxes 28 (4th ed. 1875). “The power [to sell land] exists only where there are no goods.” Scales v. Alvis, 12 Ala. 617, 620 (1847). This principle had roots in Chapter 9 of the Magna Charta, in which the King promised: “Neither We nor Our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any debt so long as the debtor’s chattels are sufficient to discharge the same . . .” A. Howard, Magna Carta: Text and Commentary 39 (rev. ed. 1998).

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