2 Cal. 2d 23 | Cal. | 1934
This action was instituted to quiet title of plaintiff to a certain lot of land situated in the city of Inglewood. The plaintiff prevailed and the defendant has appealed from the judgment in plaintiff’s favor.
Plaintiff claims under a city treasurer’s deed executed in pursuance of street improvement proceedings instituted under the improvement act of March 18, 1885. (Stats. "1885, p. 147, and acts amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto.) This act is better known as the Vrooman Act. Defendant claims under a city treasurer’s deed, executed in pursuance of like proceedings instituted under the same act. The proceedings under which the defendant’s deed was executed were instituted and consummated long prior to the institution of the proceedings under which plaintiff’s deed was executed. The lien, therefore, of the plaintiff being subsequent in time to that of defendant is superior to that of defendant, and a sale to satisfy plaintiff’s lien and execution of a deed by the city treasurer in pursuance of said sale completely extinguished the lien of the defendant and all of his rights in said real property acquired by him under his treasurer’s deed. (Woodill & Hulse Elec. Co. v. Young, 180 Cal. 667 [182 Pac. 422, 5 A. L. R. 1296] ; Balaam v. Pacific States S. & L. Co., 219 Cal. 612 [28 Pac. (2d) 1053]; Neary v. Peterson, 1 Cal. (2d) 703 [37 Pac. (2d) 82].)
The defendant also claims title to said real property under a sale thereof to the state for delinquent taxes for the year 1911. The property was sold to the state for delinquent taxes in 1912 and by the state to defendant Davis in 1917. At the time said property was assessed for general taxes as well as when the property was sold to the state for delinquent taxes by deed from the tax collector to the state, section 3787 of the Political Code provided that, “Such deed conveys to the State the absolute title to the property described therein, free of all encumbrances.” There are cer
Property acquired by the state through delinquent tax sales is held by the state in its proprietary capacity and not for governmental purposes. Lands so held are subject to general assessments and other burdens not imposed upon property impressed with a public purpose. In the recent case of La Mesa etc. Irr. Dist. v. Hornbeck, 216 Cal. 730, 738 [17 Pac. (2d) 143], it was expressly stated that, “Moreover, the law recognizes a distinction between property impressed with a public purpose and property of an agency not so impressed, for in the latter instance the property may be sold for delinquent special assessments levied by other agencies or may be affected by adverse possession and other burdens of private property. ’ ’
No claim is made that the property here involved, during the time it was held by the state, was put to any governmental use. It was, therefore, held by the state in its proprietary capacity. In the ease of City Street Improvement Co. v. Regents, etc., 153 Cal. 776, 778 [96 Pac. 801, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 451], this court cites with approval the following statement of the law from Hamilton on Special
Defendant relies upon the recent case of La Mesa Irr. Dist. v. Hornbeck, supra, and Neary v. Peterson, 76 Cal. App. Dec. 645 [30 Pac. (2d) 55], We fail to see how the defendant can derive any comfort from the decision in either of those cases. The first involved the construction of section 3787 of the Political Code, as amended in 1927, and the priority of the respective liens therein mentioned. It was held that liens for general taxes were on a parity with liens for certain special assessments enumerated in said section of the code. In the case of Neary v. Peterson, supra, this court ordered a hearing after its decision by the District Court of Appeal. On hearing before us, while we arrived at the same conclusion as that reached by the District Court of Appeal, we rewrote the case and held that, “The liens, therefore, are on a parity, made so by statute, and the lien for the subsequent street improvement remained intact notwithstanding the sale to respondent.” The judgment of the trial court was reversed. (Neary v. Peterson, 1 Cal. (2d) 703 [37 Pac. (2d) 82].) As the respondent in that action claimed under a sale to the state for general taxes, the facts in that case are in principle precisely like those in the instant action. That case, therefore, not only fails to support defendant’s contention but is practically a conclusive authority in plaintiff’s favor. It is true that under the statute these liens were all placed on a parity, while under the statute in force at the time of the sale for general taxes to the state of the property herein involved, the statute provided that the deed to the state, “conveys to the state the absolute title to the property described therein, free of all encumbrances”, but, as we have previously held herein, the encumbrances therein referred to were existing encumbrances and not such liens or encumbrances as might thereafter be legally created upon the property by the statutory or other law of the state.
The judgment is affirmed.
Preston, J., Shenk, J., Thompson, J., Waste, C. J., Langdon, J., and Seawell, J., concurred.