Davis v. Pacific Improvement Co.

The plaintiff brought this action for the partition of a block of land in San Francisco, known as South Beach Block 25, alleging in his complaint that he and the Pacific Improvement Company is each the owner of an undivided half thereof, and that the other defendants, including the appellant herein, “claim to have some interest in the premises described in the complaint herein under a common source of title, but the character and extent of the interest, if any they have, are to the plaintiff unknown”; and prayed that “all the defendants herein be required to exhibit and establish their respective claims of title in and to the said premises,” and that the court partition the property among the persons found entitled thereto. In his answer to the complaint the appellant set forth that he is the owner in fee of certain designated parcels of the land of which partition was sought. The block in question is a part of the land of which an estate of ninety-nine years was granted to the city of San Francisco by the state under the act of March 26, 1851. (Stats. 1851, p. 307.) The court found that the above estate which was granted to the city of San Francisco is vested in the plaintiff and the defendant Pacific Improvement Company, and that the appellant has no title or interest therein, and entered an interlocutory decree directing a partition of this estate between the plaintiff and the Pacific Improvement Company. From this interlocutory decree and from an order denying a new trial the present appeal has been taken.

At the trial of the cause the appellant, in support of his p-lp-im, introduced in evidence certain tax deeds made to him

1. The plaintiff introduced in evidence certain maps or plats of the block in question upon which the block had been subdivided into lots, and contends that as the assessment was not made in accordance with these subdivisions, it was unauthorized and the subsequent proceedings were invalid.

Section 3650 of the Political Code prescribes the manner in which property is to be assessed and the form of the assessment-book. After declaring "that all the property to be listed within the county shall be specified in separate columns, under appropriate heads, it gives as' the heading for one of these separate columns:—

“3. City and town lots, naming the city or town, and the number of the lot and block according to the system of numbering in such city or town, and improvements thereon.”

The assessments upon which the tax deeds of the appellant were made describe the land by metes and bounds, and not by any number or block. One of the plats or maps introduced by the plaintiff is the map commonly known as the Eddy or Red Line map, which is claimed to have been made under the provision of section 5 of the aforesaid act of March 26, 1851. Of this map it is sufficient to say that, although block 25 thereon is subdivided by lines extending across the block, and these subdivisions are bisected, the several subdivisions are not numbered, nor is their size given, and consequently it would be impossible for them to be assessed by number. The object of the above provision of the Political Code is to obviate the necessity of describing each lot by metes and bounds and to

In his brief the plaintiff refers to a map made in 1853 for the sale Of the reversionary interest of the state in the land. It does not appear from the record that this map was offered in evidence, but from the copy set forth in the plaintiff’s brief it appears that the subdivisions are radically different from those shown upon the Eddy map. This map was, moreover, prepared for the purpose of making a sale of the reversion held by the .state, and does not affect the estate in the land covered by the partition, nor indicate that it was a part of the system of numbering in said city. The same observations may be made with reference to the map of the land prepared in the year 1868 from the one that had been made under the direction of the board of tide-land commissioners.

There was no evidence before the court that any “system” of numbering the lots and blocks had been adopted or was at any time in existence in San Francisco, and it appears that the land described in the tax deeds was for many years assessed under the same description as in the deeds. The fact that a single block has been subdivided into lots would not constitute a “system” of numbering, or indicate that other blocks were subdivided or numbered. In Klumpke v. Baker, 131 Cal. 80 , where it did not appear that there was any system in San Francisco for the subdivision of the blocks into lots, it was held that the action of the assessor in subdividing the blocks for the purpose of assessment, even if erroneous as to ownership, does not invalidate the assessment, especially where the owner does not give to that officer a description of the land claimed by him.

2. It is next objected by the plaintiff that the assessor did

The court does not find, nor was there any evidence, that the delinquent list was not prepared for either of these years, and under the provisions of the statute the deeds themselves became evidence that it was prepared. By section 3769 of the Political Code the tax collector is required to file with the county recorder a copy of his publication of the delinquent list, with his affidavit attached thereto that it is a true copy of the same, and by the same section this affidavit is made prima faci& evidence of this fact. Copies of the delinquent list for the years 1882 and 1883, duly verified and filed, as thus required, were in evidence before the court, and in the absence of any direct evidence to the contrary these copies must be held to have established the existence of the originals. The inability of the auditor to produce them at the trial was not equivalent to evidence that they had never been made, nor would their loss or destruction after their function had ceased deprive the purchaser of the rights acquired by the deed.

The authority of the tax collector to publish the delinquent list is given in section 3764, which provides that the list so published “must contain the names of the persons and a description of the property delinquent and the amount of taxes and costs due, opposite each name and description. ’ ’ The enumeration of these particulars is equivalent to a declaration that none other need be published. The provisions of sections 3759-3762 are for the guidance of the auditor and tax collector in keeping the account of taxes chargeable to the latter officer, and determining the amount for which he is to account.

In the assessment for the year 1882 the property sold for the delinquent tax of that year is described as follows: “Beginning at W. cor. of George and Hubbell sts., thence running 160 5-12 ft. .S. W. on the line of Hubbell street; thence running at right angles N. W. 120 ft.; thence running at right angles N. E. 160 5-12 ft.; thence running at right angles to the point of beginning S. E. 120 ft.” In the delinquent list for that year the description is as follows: “Lot W. cor. George and Hubbell sts., th. S. W. 160 ft. 5 inches by 120 ft. in depth." A full explanation of these abbreviations is given in the assessment-roll and also in the publication of the de

The object of requiring a description of the property in the delinquent list is to notify the owner of the land that the taxes thereon are delinquent, and that .the lot is to be sold, and if the description is sufficient to give this notice it must be held to be a sufficient compliance with the statute. The rule that at one time prevailed, requiring the claimant under a tax deed to make strict and exact proof of every step to be taken in the proceeding under which the property was sold, has been greatly relaxed by modern legislation, and the speculative nature of purchases at tax sales has been thereby removed. Such legislation in this state is shown by the provisions of the Political Code making the deed prima facie evidence of all acts necessary for acquiring jurisdiction to make the sale, and conclusive as to all proceedings taken in the exercise of the jurisdiction thus acquired, and also by the provision in section 3885 that no “informality” in any act relating to the assessment or collection of taxes shall render the tax illegal. The duty of the owner of land to pay the taxes thereon and the right of the state to enforce their collection is not changed, but the inducement that under the former system was held out to the owner not to pay the taxes, in the hope that some trifling and immaterial defect in the

The same considerations are applicable to the descriptions of the property in the notice of sale for the succeeding year.

3. In the year 1883, the state board of equalization increased the assessment-roll of the city and county of San Francisco by adding thereto fifteen per cent upon the amount fixed by the county assessor. In the tax deeds which were made upon the sales for this year the assessment recited therein is given at the amount at which the property was originally assessed by the county assessor. The plaintiff contests the validity of the deeds upon the ground that the assessment is not stated therein in accordance with the action of the state board of equalization.

Section 3695 of the Political Code provides that if any change is made by the state board of equalization in the assessment-roll of a county, the clerk of that board shall transmit to the county auditor a statement of such change and of the per centum to be added or deducted from the valuation

Under the foregoing considerations it must be held that the' evidence offered by the plaintiff was insufficient to overcome the effect given to the tax deeds by the statute, and that the court erred in finding that the appellant had no interest in the land sought to be partitioned, and that in its interlocutory decree it should have made provision for the appellant’s interest therein.

The interlocutory decree and the order denying a new trial are reversed.

Garoutte, J., and Van Dyke, J., concurred.

Hearing in Bank denied.