## Facts

- Indiana law allowed the sale of real property for delinquent taxes after notice by courthouse posting and newspaper publication; the property owner also received certified-mail notice.
- The statute did not require mailed or personal notice to mortgagees before the tax sale or before issuance of a tax deed after the redemption period.
- A tax-sale purchaser received a certificate creating a lien superior to prior liens; after a two-year redemption period, the purchaser could seek a deed that would extinguish existing interests.
- Mennonite Board of Missions (MBM) held a recorded mortgage on Indiana property.
- After the mortgagor failed to pay property taxes, the property was sold at a tax sale to Richard C. Adams.
- MBM received no mailed notice of the sale or of redemption rights and first learned of the sale more than two years later, after the redemption period expired.
- Adams sued to quiet title, claiming fee simple title free of MBM’s mortgage lien.

## Issues

1. Whether notice by posting and publication, without mailed or personal notice to a recorded mortgagee whose identity and address are reasonably ascertainable, satisfies the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause before a tax sale that can extinguish the mortgagee’s interest.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed, holding 6–3 that Indiana’s notice scheme, as applied to MBM, violated due process.
- Because MBM was a recorded mortgagee with a reasonably ascertainable address, the State was required to provide notice by mail or other means likely to provide actual notice.
- Posting and publication, even with mailed notice to the owner, were constitutionally insufficient to protect MBM’s interest in the tax-sale and redemption process.

## Legal Principles

- Due process requires notice “reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances,” to inform interested parties of proceedings affecting their property interests and to allow objections.
- Notice by publication or posting is generally inadequate for parties whose names and addresses are known or reasonably ascertainable; such constructive notice must be supplemented by mailed notice or personal service.
- A mortgagee holds a legally protected property interest; a tax sale and ensuing deed can substantially impair and ultimately extinguish that interest, triggering robust notice requirements.
- When a mortgagee is identifiable from public land records, the State must take modest steps to provide mailed notice; it need not undertake extraordinary measures for unknown or unlocatable claimants.
- The constitutional notice obligation does not turn on whether the interested party is the “owner” for tax-roll purposes; substantial, recorded security interests are entitled to meaningful notice.

## Conclusion

The Court held that a recorded mortgagee whose identity and address are reasonably ascertainable must receive mailed or equivalent notice before a tax sale and related redemption deadlines that may eliminate the mortgagee’s lien; publication and posting alone do not satisfy due process.


Mennonite Bd. of Missions v. Adams, 462 U.S. 791 (1983)