McDonough v. Cooper

Action to quiet title to two parcels of land in the city of Modesto. The court gave judgment declaring defendant, Ida B. Cooper, to be the owner of the property. The plaintiff appeals from the judgment.

The plaintiff deraigned title from the United States. The defendant, Cooper, claimed under a deed following a sale for nonpayment of an assessment levied by the Modesto Irrigation District for the year 1905.

Section 48 of the act under which the sale was had makes the collector’s deed, duly acknowledged and proved, prima facie evidence that the proceedings were regular in seven specified particulars, and then declares that such deed is conclusive evidence of “the regularity of all the proceedings from the assessment by the assessor, inclusive, up to the execution of the deed.” (Stats. 1897, p. 271.) This conclusive evidence clause differs from section 3787 of the Political Code in that it does not qualify the word “proceedings” by the word “other.” Nevertheless, we do not doubt that, as was intimated in Escondido H. S. Dist. v. Escondido Seminary, 130 Cal. 128 , 133, [ 62 Pac. 401 ], and held in Bruschi v. Cooper, 30 Cal. App. 682 , 692, [ 159 Pac. 728 , 734], the legislative intent was that the deed should be conclusive with respect, only, to matters not covered by the preceding provision declaring its effect as prima facie evidence.

The appellant attacks the regularity and validity of the assessment itself. Under section 48 the deed is prima facie evidence that “the property was assessed as required by law.” The legislature did not, therefore (assuming that it might have done so without violation of constitutional rights), undertake to make the deed conclusive of the lawful assessment of the property.

It appears that in 1905 a special assessment of forty-three thousand dollars was authorized by election. The board of directors found it necessary to raise an additional sum of $65,525.55 for interest on bonds. They made a levy of one dollar on each one hundred dollars of property valuation to meet the special assessment, and of $1.55 per one hundred dollars for paying the interest. The assessment-roll was made up to show, under the head of “total amount of all taxes,” the amount of tax figured at the rate of $2.55 per one hundred dollars of valuation. The amounts levied on account

The appellant claims, further, that the certificate of sale issued by the collector was irregular in two xparticulars. The alleged defects are that the certificate is not dated on the day of the sale, and that it does not specify when the purchaser will be entitled to a deed. The facts in these regards are the same as those considered in Bruschi v. Cooper, 30 Cal. App., at pages 693, 694, [ 159 Pac. 734 ], The court there held that the certificate sufficiently met the substantial requirements of the statute, and with this conclusion we are in accord. Furthermore, it may be pointed out that any irregularity in the certificate is cured by the conclusive evidence clause, since the regularity of the certificate is not one of the' matters as to which the deed is made prima facie evidence. The provision for a certificate might have been omitted from the statute altogether without impairing any constitutional right of the property owner. Any irregularity in the form of such certificate may, therefore, be remedied by a curative clause such as that contained in section 48.

(Chase v. Trout, 146 Cal. 350 , [ 80 Pac. 81 ]; Baird v. Monroe, 150 Cal. 560 , 568, [ 89 Pac. 352 ]; Bank of Lemoore v.

No other points are made.

The judgment is affirmed.

Victor E. Shaw, J., pro tem., and Richards, J., pro tem., concurred.