Denning v. Green

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TYLER. P. J.

Action to quiet title. The complaint is in the usual form. A dismissal was entered as to defendants C. B. Murphy and Oak Peters and defendant Lillie F. Anderson filed a disclaimer. Issue was joined by Green’s amended answer and cross-complaint. Plaintiff claimed title through one Lucy J. Benjamin. Defendant and appellant Green claimed under a tax sale of the property at a time when it was assessed to Lucy J. Benjamin. At the trial plaintiffs offered' this deed from Lucy J. Benjamin in evidence and rested. Defendant Green, for the purpose of defeating plaintiffs’ title and quieting his claim as against them, thereupon offered in evidence a alleged deed from the tax collector of the county of Sonoma to one Lichtenberg and a quitclaim deed from to himself. The admission of the deeds was to on the grounds: (1) That defendants’ answer and cross-complaint failed to set forth that the proceedings leading up to the execution of the tax deed had been with; (2) That there was no foundation laid for the admission of the deed in that no deed to the state of was offered showing the right of the tax collector to make the deed and the deed itself contained no such Certain other objections were made against the of the deeds in evidence. The deeds were admitted to the objections. At the conclusion of the trial the court, among other facts, found that Lucy J. Benjamin, a widow, was, on the twenty-third day of November, 1910, the owner in fee simple absolute of the real property in question and that while such owner she conveyed to the plaintiffs as joint tenants her interest therein subject to a life estate reserved in herself-. That thereafter she died and plaintiffs thereupon became and ever since have been and still are the owners of the property as joint tenants with the right of survivorship as recited in the deed of Lucy J. Benjamin. It further found that no deed by the tax of the county of Sonoma was ever made to the state of California of the property described in the action, at the expiration of five years after a purported sale to the state for nonpayment of state and county taxes for the year 1916. That prior to the purported sale of the property by the tax collector to Lichtenberg neither the tax collector nor anyone

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