## Facts

- Gary Kent Jones owned a house in Little Rock, Arkansas, purchased in 1967.
- After separating from his wife in 1993, Jones moved to an apartment but continued paying the mortgage; the mortgage company previously paid the property taxes.
- After the mortgage was paid off in 1997, property taxes went unpaid and the property was certified delinquent.
- The Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands sent Jones a certified-mail notice to the property address warning that the property would be subject to sale if not redeemed; it was returned marked “unclaimed.”
- Two years later, the Commissioner published notice of a public sale in a local newspaper; no bids were received.
- Before completing a negotiated private sale to Linda K. Flowers, the Commissioner sent a second certified-mail notice to the same address; it also was returned “unclaimed.”
- After Flowers purchased the property, an unlawful-detainer notice reached Jones’s daughter at the house, and she informed Jones of the sale.
- Jones sued Flowers and the Commissioner, alleging deprivation of property without due process due to inadequate notice; the trial court granted summary judgment to defendants, and the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause requires the State to take additional reasonable steps to notify a property owner of a tax sale when certified-mail notice is returned unclaimed and further steps are practicable.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed and remanded in a 5–3 decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts.
- The Court held that when the State learns, before a tax sale, that its certified-mail notice was returned unclaimed, due process requires additional reasonable steps to provide notice if practicable.
- The Court rejected any rule requiring the State to guarantee actual notice or undertake burdensome investigations for a new address.
- The Court identified low-burden measures that could satisfy due process in this situation, such as resending notice by regular mail, posting notice at the property, or mailing to “occupant.”

## Legal Principles

- Due process requires notice “reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances,” to inform interested parties of proceedings affecting their property interests.
- When the government becomes aware that its initial notice attempt has failed before extinguishing property rights, doing nothing further is not necessarily “reasonably calculated” to provide notice.
- The State must take additional reasonable, practicable steps when available and not unduly burdensome; due process does not require actual notice.
- Publication and a certified-mail attempt may be insufficient when the State knows mailed notice did not reach the owner prior to the taking.

## Conclusion

When certified-mail notice of a tax sale is returned unclaimed and the State knows of the failure before selling the property, the Due Process Clause requires the State to take additional reasonable, practicable steps to notify the owner before extinguishing the owner’s property interest.


Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S. 220 (2006)