228 P. 461 | Cal. | 1924
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *307
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *308 This is an action to quiet title. From a judgment in favor of the defendants the plaintiffs appeal. The appellants are the owners of certain lots in the city of Richmond. The respondents claim an interest in said lots by reason of certain assessments for street improvements. On the twenty-first day of August, 1916, the council of the city of Richmond adopted a resolution, number 281-2, declaring its intention to grade, curb, sidewalk, and pave certain portions of 47th Street in said city. The proceedings were taken under the Improvement Act of 1911 (Stats. 1911, p. 730) and amendments thereto (Stats. 1915, p. 1464), and the Improvement Bond Act of 1915 (Stats. 1915, p. 1441) and amendments thereto (Stats. 1917, p. 142). Said resolution of intention contained, among other things, a provision for the issuance of serial bonds to represent the assessments, the same to mature in five years, and gave notice of the time and place for hearing objections to said improvements. In due time the appellants signed and filed with the city clerk a document protesting and objecting to the proposed improvement proceedings in this: That at a prior meeting of the council when said proposed improvements were considered it had been agreed that the work should be carried out as proposed, but that the serial bonds to represent the assessments should mature in nine years; that because of the fact that the objectors were large property owners in *309 the district, they would be unable to pay their assessments within the five-year period. The communication concluded as follows: "Wherefore the undersigned pray that this honorable body correct and amend its resolution of intention or republish the same so as to provide that the bonds under which the work is to be paid for shall mature nine years from and after a date to be fixed by your honorable body." This document was presented to the council and during a consideration thereof appellant W.C. Dohrman appeared and stated that the protestants had no objection to the proposed work, but that they did object to the term of the bonds. The council thereupon rescinded said resolution, abandoned all proceedings taken thereunder and immediately adopted a resolution of intention to perform said work, number 281-3, in all respects the same in form as resolution number 281-2, except that in the second resolution it was provided that the bonds to be issued to represent the assessments should mature in nine years as requested by appellants. Thereafter proceedings were taken pursuant to the second resolution of intention, the contract was let, the work was performed and accepted, the assessments were levied to pay the cost and expenses of the work and bonds were issued to represent the assessments levied on the lands of the appellants. For delinquency in the payment of certain installments of said bonds and accrued interest the said property was sold to satisfy said assessments. No protests or objections were interposed by the appellants, or any of them, at any stage of the proceedings under the second resolution of intention until after the sale for delinquency, when this action was brought.
The complaint is in the ordinary form of a suit to quiet title and the purpose of the action is to relieve said property from the burden of the assessment by a decree in this proceeding. The purpose is apparent from a stipulation made at the trial that the validity of the proceedings taken under the street improvement laws and resulting in said assessments was the only matter in dispute and that whatever interest the city might have in said land by reason of taxes levied for general municipal purposes was not involved herein.
1. It is first insisted that the Improvement Bond Act of 1915 was not available to the city of Richmond by reason *310
of the amendment in 1914 of sections 6 and 8 of article XI of the constitution. [1] Prior to the amendment of section 6 in 1914 and after its amendment in 1896 a charter framed and adopted under the authority of the constitution was subject to and controlled by general laws except in municipal affairs. In accordance with the construction placed upon the amendment of 1896, especially in Fragley v. Phelan,
It will be noted that the city in its original charter in 1909 was granted authority to exercise "such other powers as may be hereafter granted by the legislature to municipalities within the state." [4] This is especially true with reference to municipal affairs and it is well settled that the improvement of streets such as is here involved is a municipal affair (Byrne v. Drain,
2. It is next contended that, assuming power in the city to proceed under the Improvement Bond Act of 1915, the said bonds as issued are nullities because they impose a direct liability on the city to pay the same and were not issued in conformity with the requirements of section 18 of article XI of the constitution and the Municipal Indebtedness Act of 1901. (Stats. 1901, p. 27). The argument is based on the form of the bond as prescribed in section 6 of the act of 1915 as amended in 1917. The form of the bond as required by the original section (Stats. 1915, p. 1445) contained a provision with reference to the payment of the bond from the redemption fund provided for in the act as follows: "It is payable exclusively out of said fund, and neither the municipality nor any officer thereof is to be holden for payment otherwise of its principal or interest." The amendment of 1917 (Stats. 1917, p. 212) provides that the bond "including principal and interest is payable exclusively out of said fund," and it is urged that by reason of the omission in the amendment of the clause "and neither the municipality nor any officer thereof is to be holden for payment," it was attempted to make, and did make, the bond a general obligation of the city. [6] We find no merit in the contention. The form of the obligation was not changed by the amendment. The general plan of the act providing a method whereby bonds to represent the assessments could be issued, a redemption fund created for the payment of the principal and interest thereof and payment exclusively from said fund, remained the same. The bonds were still "payable exclusively from said fund" and the fund under the act was to be replenished only by payments on account of assessments or by sale for delinquency. The case of Union Trust Co. v. State ofCalifornia,
[7] 3. It is next claimed that the council never acquired jurisdiction to order the work done under resolution of intention number 281-3, for the reason, as counsel contends, that the record does not disclose that the objections filed by the appellants on September 8, 1916, to the proceedings as contemplated by resolution number 281-2, were properly disposed of. It may be observed that under section 6 of the act of 1911 (Stats. 1911, p. 734) the protests which the property owner may file are "against the proposed work or against the extent of the assessment district or both." The communication filed by the appellants raised no objections to the proposed work nor to the extent of the assessment district, but objected only to the time of the maturity of the bonds. The issuance of such bonds is discretionary with the council under the bond act (Stats. 1915, p. 1441) and no opportunity for objection or protest to the issuance thereof is provided for by the terms of the act. But if it be assumed that an objection to the term of the bonds in a broad sense might be included within an objection to the "proposed work," still the record discloses that the objections and petition of the appellants were acceded to and granted by the council, for it immediately rescinded the resolution of intention number 281-2 and started anew by the adoption of resolution of intention number 281-3. No valid reason has been suggested by the appellants why the council did not have full power to so proceed and as no question of a statutory stay of further proceedings is involved, *315 it is idle for appellants now to contend, having obtained the result which they sought, that the council should have made a formal order granting or denying their request. The proceedings taken under the second resolution of intention were independent and complete in every detail. No protests or objections were interposed thereto by the appellants on any ground whatsoever and the council acquired jurisdiction to order the work performed.
4. It is further contended that the sale of the lots was invalid for the reason that they were not sold separately, but were sold in groups. Section 12 of the act of 1915 provides that upon default in payment of said bonds or of any installment of principal or interest thereof the lands securing such installments and assessments shall be sold and be subject to redemption in the same manner in which real property in said city is sold and redeemed for nonpayment of general municipal taxes. This section also provides that the city may be the purchaser at any delinquent sale in like manner in which it may become the purchaser of property sold for nonpayment of general municipal taxes. As hereinbefore noted, the city is authorized by its charter to levy and collect taxes and assessments and to fix the method and manner in which such powers shall be exercised. In June, 1916, the council adopted Ordinance Number 405, entitled: "An ordinance providing a system for the assessment, levying and collection of all city taxes in the city of Richmond." By this ordinance the city fixed and established a complete scheme for the levying and collection of municipal taxes. As to the assessment of property for municipal purposes the ordinance requires in section 17 thereof that the assessor prepare an assessment-book with appropriate headings in which must be listed all taxable property within the city and in which must be specified in separate columns, under appropriate headings, (1) the name of the person, if known, to whom the property is assessed, (2) lands by metes and bounds, etc., sufficient for identification, (3) city lots, numbers of lots and blocks, tract names and improvements thereon, and (6) the cash value of city lots. Section 52 requires the tax collector to publish the delinquent list, which must contain the names of the persons and a description of the property delinquent, and the amount of the taxes, penalties, and costs due opposite each name and *316 description. Under this section the tax collector is also required to publish with the delinquent tax list a notice that unless the taxes delinquent, together with the costs and penalties be paid, the property upon which such taxes are a lien will be sold to the city of Richmond. Section 57 provides for a redemption within five years from the date of the sale and section 61 provides that the city auditor shall make an estimate of the amount required to redeem on application of any person desiring to redeem and deliver to such person a certificate specifying the several items in the amount to be paid. It is apparent from the procedure outlined in this ordinance that the lots and lands in the city must be separately assessed for municipal purposes as therein provided and that each of such lots or parcels of land should be sold separately. It may be said that the requirements of said section 17 providing that the assessor list the several parcels of land for purposes of general municipal taxes has no direct bearing upon the method of assessment under the act of 1911 for the reason that the assessments involved herein were made under the resolution of intention and could only be made under that act. But the general plan of the city ordinance, including the method of assessment, is of assistance in determining what method should be followed by the city in the sale of lands assessed for street improvements under section 12 of the act of 1911. If the method provided by the city for the sale of property for delinquent municipal taxes requires that the several lots and lands be sold separately, it must necessarily follow that any lots and lands sold by the city to satisfy delinquent assessments for street improvements must also be sold separately in order to satisfy the requirements of section 12 of the Improvement Act that "upon default in payment, the lands securing such installments and assessments shall be sold in the same manner in which real property in such city is sold for the nonpayment of general municipal taxes." It must be concluded that the method provided by the city for the sale of property to satisfy unpaid taxes for municipal purposes contemplates that the same be separately advertised and sold.
The record in this case shows that the several lots of the plaintiffs were located in a tract known as "East Shore Park" and were separately assessed under the Improvement *317
Act. Each item specified the lot, block, assessment number and amount of the assessment in cash. But in the delinquent roll and in the notice of sale the lots were not so separately designated, but were grouped. For example: Lots 23, 24, and 25 of block "M" were grouped and sold as one item; lots 33, 34, and 35 in the same block were grouped and sold as one item; lots 1 to 3 and 6 to 12 in block "N" were grouped and sold as one item, and so on. This plan was followed throughout, and resulted in the sale of each lot in a particular group to satisfy the lien on each of the other lots in the same group. [8] We think the method thus pursued by the city was unauthorized. In Brady v. Kelly,
[9] 5. It is urged that the Improvement Bond Act of 1915 prescribing the form of the bond and in specifying the manner of its payment violates the provisions of section 31 of article IV of the constitution prohibiting the legislature from pledging the credit of any city in the state. But the contention is based upon the false assumption that the bonds when issued are direct and primary obligations of the city. As has been pointed out, they were not under the original bond act of 1915 and the legal effect so far as the obligation of the city is concerned was not changed in the form prescribed by the amendment of 1917. Hence no difficulty with reference to the applicability of the form prescribed by such amendment to the proceedings theretofore commenced can arise herein and the rights of the appellants were not affected by the amendment. *318
6. Several objections to the validity of the tax Ordinance No. 405 are raised. In the main they relate to the method followed by the city in advertising for sale and selling the property of the appellants, but inasmuch as we have decided that the sale under the ordinance was irregular and appellants' contentions in that regard have been sustained, we deem it unnecessary specifically to enumerate or pass upon them. [10] But the contention that the provisions of said ordinance to the effect that the property when sold shall be sold to the city is unconstitutional should be determined. It is the position of the appellants that the ordinance adopted by the city requiring the city to purchase the property at the sale is imposing a burden upon all of its taxpayers for the benefit of the bondholder, who holds the same in private ownership, thus constituting a gift to the bondholder in contravention of section 31 of article IV of the constitution. The argument assumes that in the improvement of streets the work is a private matter. On the contrary, such work is for a public purpose. The city might have expended its general funds for that purpose. It was not compelled to do so and when it elected to proceed under the general street improvement laws, it simply adopted the means provided by law whereby it might in accordance therewith exercise a public function without incurring a contractual liability such as is contemplated under section 18 of article XI of the constitution and the bond act of 1901. When the city elects to proceed under said act it assumes the burden of discharging its duties thereunder to the end that the assessment may be enforced (see FederalConstruction Co. v. Wold,
[11] But the fact that the sale of appellants' property was invalid would not necessarily entitle the appellants to a decree quieting their title under the circumstances here shown. By appropriate proceedings the council acquired jurisdiction to order the work performed. In fact, all the proceedings leading up to and including the issuance of the bonds were valid. The work has been performed and the lands have been benefited by the improvements and the *319
expenditures incident thereto. The plaintiffs in this equitable action seek to relieve the lands from the burden of the assessment for such benefits without paying or offering to pay their just portion of the cost of the improvements. In the early case of Weber v. City of San Francisco,
The judgment is affirmed.
Myers, C. J., Lawlor, J., Lennon, J., Waste, J., Richards, J., and Seawell, J., concurred.
Rehearing denied.
All the Justices concurred.