107 P. 113 | Cal. | 1910
This action was brought to obtain a partition of a number of lots situate in the city of Bakersfield, Kern County. Pending the action Ng Hon Kim filed a complaint in intervention whereby he claimed, as against all the original parties, the title to a portion of the property described in the complaint, to wit: lots 1, 2, and 3 in block 132 in the Baker Homestead Tract. The plaintiff and the various defendants answered the complaint in intervention, denying the intervener's claim of title. The court found that said intervener was the owner of the lots claimed by him, and gave him a decree quieting his title thereto as against the plaintiff and the defendants. A partition of the remainder of the land described in the complaint was ordered. The plaintiff and the defendants appeal from that portion of the decree in favor of the intervener, and also from an order denying their motion for a new trial.
The intervener's asserted title was based on a deed from the state following a sale for failure to pay taxes. The proceedings leading up to the making of this deed are fully set out in the record, and the only question that need here be determined is whether the evidence sustains the findings of *291 the court that the intervener acquired title by virtue of the tax proceedings.
Various objections to the validity of the assessment and the steps taken to collect the same are presented by the appellants.
It is urged that the assessment itself is invalid for want of a sufficient description of the property. The assessment-roll or book was offered in evidence, and showed entries as follows: Under the heading "description of property" appears the words: "In the town of Bakersfield, lot 1, 2, 3" and under the heading "block" the figures "132." Upon the trial the intervener offered no evidence to show whether this represented a general system of numbering in force in the city of Bakersfield, or was according to a subdivision of some tract offered for sale by private owners. The complaint describes the property as "In the Baker Homestead Tract, according to the map of said tract filed in the office of the county recorder of the county of Kern, state of California, on the 3rd day of April, 1889," and the complaint in intervention adopts the description of the complaint. No map showing the location of any lots or blocks was introduced in evidence. Under the decisions of this court there seems to be no escape from the conclusion that the assessment is prima facie invalid.
In Miller v. Williams,
Upon the authority of these cases it must therefore be held that there was before the court no evidence sufficient to justify it in holding that the intervener had acquired title by virtue of valid tax proceedings. The proceedings in question were based upon an assessment which, standing alone, was prima facie insufficient. Upon a new trial it will, of course, be competent for the intervener to offer evidence for the purpose of showing that the description was sufficient. To this end he may show, if it be the fact, that there was of record at the time of the assessment a map by the aid of which the description *293 of the lots in question would serve to fully and completely identify and locate them.
A new trial will be necessary by reason of what we have stated. As a guide for further proceedings we shall give attention to such other points made by appellants as may arise again.
It appeared that the record title to the land stood in the name of one Celsus Brower, who held as trustee for the plaintiff and the various defendants. Brower had executed a lease of the property to the intervener, who had taken possession thereunder, and had accepted grants from the purchasers under the tax-sales before the expiration of the term of the lease with its extensions. It is urged that said intervener was, as tenant of Brower, estopped to deny the title of the latter. We need not enter into the question whether the doctrine precluded a tenant from questioning his landlord's title prevents reliance upon a tax-title acquired under a sale made after the execution of the lease. (24 Cyc. 955; Teich v. Arms,
It is urged that the trial court erred in admitting in evidence tax receipts showing the payment by the intervener of taxes upon the land in controversy. We do not see the materiality of this evidence (Keane v. Cannovan,
The point, raised for the first time in the reply brief, that the land was sold to the state for more than the amount of taxes and the costs actually due, is not supported by the record. The argument is based upon the assumption that the land sold covered (in addition to the property in controversy) only certain land in the town of Tehachapi and lots in the *294 Drury Addition. It appears, however, from the tax-collector's deed to the state, that the sale included four lots in the Lowell Addition, and taking these into account it appears that the amount of taxes and costs was correctly computed and stated in the deed.
The same answer may be made to the point that the tax-collector, in receiving and accepting a bid upon the sale by the state, did not include taxes for the years 1900, 1901, and 1902. Section 3897 of the Political Code provides that no bid shall be received or accepted at such sale for less than the amount of all taxes levied upon such property and interest, costs, penalties, and expenses up to the date of such sale. There is, however, no evidence in the record that any taxes were assessed or levied upon the land in question for the years 1900, 1901, and 1902. The deed to the purchaser from the state is primafacie evidence of all the facts recited therein (Pol. Code, sec. 3898), and is required to recite "the facts necessary to authorize such sale and conveyance." (Id.) The deed in question recited, as one of such facts, that the amount bid was not less than the amount required by section 3897 of the Political Code. In the absence of any showing to the contrary, this recital must prevail.
The remaining point is that the authorization from the state controller to the tax-collector required the land to be sold in separate lots or parcels, whereas it was in fact sold as a whole. It appears, however, that the land sold, while described as lots 1, 2, and 3, was really assessed as a whole. "The question as to the lots or parcels in which the land is to be sold is controlled, as a general rule, by the assessment list." (27 Am. Eng. Ency. of Law, 2d ed., 834.) Where separate lots in a block are contiguous, and are owned by a single individual, they may properly be assessed as one parcel. (People v. Morse,
The portion of the judgment appealed from, and the order denying appellants' motion for a new trial, are reversed.
Shaw, J., and Angellotti, J., concurred.