George Will wrote about this case, as did Somin in Powerline and Tottenburg at NPR.
If I understand Tyler owned a condo, she left for assisted living and apparently left the condo unoccupied. Years later the county took the condo for nonpayment of taxes, auctioned it off, and kept the proceeds. It sounds like a case of injustice.
What the brief summary seems to miss is that Tyler not only didn't pay her taxes, she didn't pay her HOA dues nor her mortgage. The Minnesota law says if the county takes the property for unpaid taxes, that action wipes out all mortgage and HOA fee debts.
To me it's hard to see how Tyler should get any money. If she'd declared bankruptcy, then the three creditors: county, mortgage holder, and HOA would presumably fight over the proceeds of the auction.
To be clear, I don't have a problem with invalidating the law.
This is a tear-jerker case, which might lead to poor decisions. we'll see.
