Peterson v. Johnson

TRAYNOR, J.

Defendants appeal from a judgment quieting plaintiffs’ title to 80 acres of land in Los Angeles County.

The land was assessed to Russell F. Johnson in 1931 as an undivided part of 120 acres owned by him. In July of that year, he conveyed the entire parcel to his wife, Myrtle N. Johnson, who failed to pay the taxes as they became due. The delinquent tax list for the year 1931 was published, giving

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notice that the 120-acre parcel assessed to Russell P. Johnson would be sold to the state by operation of law unless $380.06 of taxes, penalties, and costs were paid. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Johnson paid this amount or any part thereof.

In 1934, Mrs. Johnson conveyed 40 of the 120 acres to Josephine Palomar a, who in turn conveyed them to plaintiff Peterson. Peterson redeemed the 40 acres under the partial redemption statute (Pol. Code, § 3818, now Rev. & Tax. Code, §§ 4146-4155). When Peterson applied for redemption of the 40 acres, the assessor placed a separate valuation on the part sought to be redeemed for each tax delinquent year. The remaining acres were valued at the difference between the original valuation and the valuation placed on the 40 acres. The taxes were prorated so that each part of the land was charged with the same amount of taxes that each would have borne had the assessor made a separate assessment originally.

In 3937, the state took title to the remaining 80 acres under a tax deed. The deed described only the 80 unredeemed acres, and recited that they had been sold to the state in 1932 for $258.06. This figure was the unpaid balance of the 1931 taxes, penalties, and costs that had heen prorated to the 80 acres. In May, 1939, Mrs. Johnson died intestate, leaving her husband and two sons as heirs. Defendant, Warren R. Johnson, one of the sons, was in military service from 1942 to 1945. In 1946, the sons assigned their interests in their mother’s estate to their father. In 1945, Peterson and Smith bought the 80 acres from the state, and in 1947 brought this action to quiet their title thereto.

The provisions of the partial redemption statute (Pol. Code, § 3818; now Rev. & Tax. Code, § 4154) require the assessor to place a valuation on the parcel to be redeemed for the purpose of prorating the taxes. Defendants contend that the statute is unconstitutional because it does not provide for an equalization hearing of the split valuation, and that the court therefore erred in rejecting defendants’ offer to prove that the valuation placed on the 40 acres was much less than its true value ancl that an excessive valuation was therefore placed on the remaining 80 acres and in sustaining objections to the introduction of evidence as to the value of the property redeemed.