114 P. 798 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1911
Action to quiet title to real estate. The court found in favor of the validity of certain tax proceedings and tax deeds issued thereunder by virtue of which defendants asserted title to the property in controversy, and gave judgment for defendants. Thereafter, the court made an order granting plaintiffs' motion for a new trial "because of the insufficiency of description in the tax deeds and assessments." Defendants appeal from this order.
The description of the property as contained in both the assessment-roll and deeds under which defendants claim title is as follows: "In Los Angeles city, in Los Angeles county, in Clifton Tr., lots 6, 7 and 8," the same, however, being separately assessed. It has been repeatedly held that such an assessment is insufficient to identify the property, and hence, standing alone, it is prima facie invalid. (Baird v. Monroe,
No reference was made in the assessment to any map of the Clifton tract and no map thereof was offered in evidence. For the purpose, however, of establishing their title to the property, plaintiffs introduced in evidence a deed executed in 1888, whereby the property was conveyed to them and wherein the property was described as set forth in the complaint. Likewise, for the purpose of showing their title, defendants introduced in evidence the deeds under which they deraigned their asserted title, in all of which other than in those made to and by the state, which in describing the property followed the description contained in the assessment-roll made in 1894, the property was described as set forth in the complaint.
Appellants insist that as the deed of 1888 plainly referred to a specified map of the Clifton tract, it will be presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that such map existed in 1888, and that the lots in question were properly delineated thereon; and, as the contrary is not shown, it must also be presumed that such map was in existence at the time when the assessment was made, which fact, it is claimed, is corroborated in that some of the deeds whereby defendants deraigned title likewise described the property according to such map. In other words, defendants invoke the rule applicable in such cases to ordinary deeds of conveyance from one person to another. This rule has no application to cases *242
where it is sought to divest a property owner of his title by proceedings in invitum. (Labs v. Cooper,
By making the order granting a new trial for the reasons therein given, the court determined that the evidence offered was not of a character to overcome the admitted prima facie insufficiency of the description contained in the assessment. We cannot say the court erred in the ruling.
A great part of appellants' argument is devoted to the contention that throughout the record it appears that plaintiffs, by admissions both express and implied, conceded the property described in the complaint to be identical with that referred to in the tax proceedings. We perceive no merit in *243 such contention. Whether it was the same property was the only point in controversy, and the solution of the question depended upon the sufficiency of the description in the tax proceedings, which, as we have seen, was prima facie invalid. The record discloses no admissions or concessions on the part of plaintiffs, either express or implied, which could be deemed a waiver of the proof conceded to be necessary in order to apply the description to the lots described in the complaint.
Appellants also insist that the making of the order was erroneous, for the reason that plaintiffs did not tender or offer at any stage of the trial to pay the amount of taxes levied against the property and for the nonpayment of which it was sold. The action was brought under the provisions of section
We find no error in the ruling of the court, and the order granting a new trial is therefore affirmed.
Allen, P. J., and James, J., concurred.
A petition to have the cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on March 30, 1911. *244