§ 17-a. Abandonment of claims under defective tax sales; recovery of
taxes paid thereon by state. Where the claim of title of the state to
any land is based on a tax sale, which title in the opinion of the
attorney-general would be declared void by the courts, the commissioner
of general services, on the filing with him of such opinion and the
evidence upon which such opinion was based, may, by order, abandon any
claim of title to such land, but, notwithstanding such abandonment, the
people of the state shall have a lien upon the real property affected by
the abandonment, prior and superior to all other liens, for the amount
of all taxes, fees and charges admitted or paid by the people upon such
real property to the date of the abandonment of the state's claim of
title, together with interest thereon from the dates of payment.
Provided such lien remains unpaid after the expiration of one year from
the date of the abandonment, the people of the state may foreclose such
lien as a mortgage on real property is foreclosed; but in any such
action establishment of payments of taxes on said land or any part
thereof by the adjudged or admitted owner of the property during any of
the same years in which payments were also made by the people of the
state shall reduce the lien of the people by the larger of the two tax
payments for each of the years affected by duplicate payments, and in
the event that wholly identical areas are not affected by the duplicate
payments the court shall have power to apportion and adjust the amount
of the lien as equity may require. This remedy for recovery of tax
payments shall be in addition to any other remedy now or hereafter
available in law or in equity, and shall be without prejudice to any
defense or offset available to an adverse claimant in law or in equity.