Colorado § 39-11-104 - Publisher's affidavit - form.

§ 39-11-104. Publisher's affidavit - form.

(1) Every publisher or printer who publishes such list and notice, immediately after the last publication thereof, shall transmit to the treasurer of the proper county an affidavit of such publication made by such publisher, printer, or some other person to whom the fact of publication is known, and no publisher or printer may be paid for such publication if the publisher or printer fails to transmit such affidavit within fourteen calendar days after the last publication.

(2) Such affidavit shall be substantially in the following form:

​​​ "I, .............., publisher (or printer) of the .............., a .............. newspaper, printed and published in the county of .................. and state of Colorado, do hereby certify that the foregoing notice and list were published in said newspaper, once in each week, for ...... successive weeks, the last of which publications was made prior to the ................ day of ................, A.D. 20...., and that copies of each number of said paper in which said notice and list were published were delivered by carriers or transmitted by mail to each of the subscribers of said paper, according to the accustomed mode of business in this office.

....................,

Publisher (or Printer) of the ...................

STATE OF COLORADO

) ss.

County of ........................................

​ The above certificate of publication was subscribed and sworn to before me by the above named .................., who is personally known to me to be the identical person described in the above certificate, on the .................. day of .................., A.D. 20.... .

.................................

(SEAL)"

Source: L. 64: R&RE, p. 723, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 137-11-4. L. 2026: (1) amended, (SB 26-144), ch. 135, p. 604, § 9, effective June 1.

Editor's note: Section 55(1) of chapter 135 (SB 26-144), Session Laws of Colorado 2026, provides that the act changing this section applies to any fee imposed, assessed, or collected by a county treasurer on or after June 1, 2026.

ANNOTATION

I. General Consideration.

II. Form and Sufficiency of Affidavit.

I. GENERAL CONSIDERATION.

Law reviews. For note, "Analysis of Basic Statutes on Legal Publications", see 19 Rocky Mt. L. Rev. 380 (1947).

Annotator's note. The following annotations include a case decided under this section as it existed prior to its 1964 repeal and reenactment.

Purpose of affidavit requirement. The purpose of this section, requiring the affidavit and its careful preservation by the county clerk is to make it exclusive evidence of the fact and manner of the publication. Except, perhaps, in case of its destruction, no other kind of proof can be substituted for it. Paine v. Palmborg, 20 Colo. App. 432, 79 P. 330 (1905); Herr v. Graden, 33 Colo. 527, 81 P. 242 (1905); Sternberger v. Moffat, 44 Colo. 520, 99 P. 560 (1908).

Proper affidavit is prerequisite to valid tax deed. An affidavit of publication of notice of sale made in conformity with this section and filed in the proper office is a prerequisite to a valid tax deed. Charlton v. Kelly, 24 Colo. 273, 50 P. 1042 (1897); Concord Corp. v. Huff, 144 Colo. 72, 355 P.2d 73 (1960).

Affidavit of publisher's foreman competent proof of publication. The foreman for the publisher of the paper in which the tax sale notice is published would know whether the notice and list had been published. His affidavit, therefore, is competent proof to establish the publication of the tax sale notice. Herr v. Graden, 59 Colo. 372, 148 P. 863 (1915).

Applied in Bertha Gold Mining & Milling Co. v. Burr, 31 Colo. 264, 73 P. 36 (1903); Gilbreath v. Doe, 24 Colo. App. 205, 132 P. 1146 (1913).

II. FORM AND SUFFICIENCY OF AFFIDAVIT.

The prescribed form includes all allegations deemed necessary. When the prescribed form is used, it includes all allegations which the general assembly deemed necessary for the purpose. Herr v. Graden, 22 Colo. App. 511, 127 P. 319 (1912), rev'd on other grounds, 59 Colo. 372, 148 P. 863 (1915).

The statutory form of affidavit need not be literally followed, but there can be no excuse for disregarding its substantial requisites. Morris v. St. Louis Nat'l Bank, 17 Colo. 231, 29 P. 802 (1892).

Affidavit failing to show publication of time and place of sale is insufficient. An affidavit of publication of notice of a tax sale which states that the list of lands for sale was published for four successive weeks in a weekly newspaper, but which fails to show that the notice of the time and place of sale was published, is insufficient to support a tax sale. Paine v. Palmborg, 20 Colo. App. 432, 79 P. 330 (1905).

Affidavit failing to show required number of publications is insufficient. An affidavit of publication of notice of a tax sale which states that the notice was published in a daily paper on September 6, and that the last publication was made prior to October 1, is insufficient, as it shows only one publication, while § 39-11-102 requires the publication to be made once a week for four consecutive weeks. Paine v. Palmborg, 20 Colo. App. 432, 79 P. 330 (1905).

Affidavit failing to show proper delivery of papers is insufficient. Unless the affidavit of publication of notice of a tax sale shows that copies of each number of the paper in which the notice was published were delivered or transmitted to each subscriber of the paper according to the accustomed mode of business of the office, it is insufficient, and a sale based thereon is invalid. Rustin v. Merchants' & Miners' Tunnel Co., 23 Colo. 351, 47 P. 300 (1896); Lambert v. Shumway, 36 Colo. 350, 85 P. 89 (1906).