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he thought he’d bought at that tax sale, Mr. Luke explained, adding that the owner of the “phantom lot" is seeking $21.26 for the actual taxes paid from 1967 to 1980, $79.75 for the six percent interest on that amount plus taxes and interest from the seven years since, which would bring the total to around $200. And [H)ssibly there’s a fraud suit in the off ing if reimbursement isn’t forthcoming, he added.
Normally, the county’s liability for errors in tax payments carries''*! statute of limitations of three years under provisions of the Virginia (’ode, the Commonwealth’s Attorney said. But in this case, since the members of the board in 1967 authorized the sale of non-existent property for non-existent back taxes, that limitation may not be binding, he explained.
“1 think we should give them the $200,” announced Sujx*rvisor Ellis Bingham, maintaining that while the legal obligation might extend to only three years, the ethical obligation extends farther.
“Nobody twisted their arm to make them buy the property," countered Supervisor Mike Massie. “They thought they were getting something cheap, and they were caught by their own greed. They bought a pig in a poke, and there was nothing in the poke when they got home!” He objected to the return of even the last three years’ payments but acknowledged that the law probably required that much be reimbursed. 4
Administrative assistant John McCarthy pointed out that Mr. Greeson’s attorney had received .a letter from another lawyer in 1979, advising that the property probably did not exist and suggesting that
\ (See PHANTOM, p. 12)
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