1. In all cases where real property has been sold by a sheriff, executor, administrator, guardian, assignee, receiver, trustee or other person appointed or authorized by the court, and the record of the action in which the sale had been made is lost or destroyed by fire or otherwise, the deed to the property made by the sheriff, executor, administrator, guardian, assignee, receiver, trustee or other person appointed or authorized by the court shall be prima facie evidence of the legality and regularity of the sale, and of the correctness of the proceeding in the action or proceeding wherein the property was sold.
2. The deeds made by the treasurer of any county of lands sold at delinquent or forfeited tax sales shall not be prima facie evidence of the title in the purchasers of such lands, and no such presumption shall be indulged in favor of such tax deeds or sales when the records of the sales and the proceedings upon which the sale was based have been lost or destroyed by fire or otherwise.
[1911 CPA § 689; RL § 5631; NCL § 9178]