California Land Co. v. Town of Corte Madera

BUCK (G. F.), P. J.,

pro

tem.

This is an action by plaintiffs, property holders in the Town of Corte Madera, to quiet title and enjoin the said town and its officials from issuing any bonds to cover an unpaid assessment for street-work done under the Improvement Act of 1911. (Stats. 1911, p. 730.)

[394]

The case was tried by the court without a jury and findings and judgment were made and given in favor of the plaintiffs. Thereafter, proceeding under the provisions of sections 663 and 663a of the Code of Civil Procedure, the defendants moved the court to set aside and vacate the said judgment upon the grounds that in the light of facts found “the court must in this suit to quiet the title of plaintiffs’ lots of land against the lien of such assessment by its judgment and decree direct the making of a reassessment to cover the assessments involved in such suit pursuant to the requirements of section 28 of the said ‘Improvement Act of 1911.’ ” Whereupon the court, after a hearing of the motion, did order that “said judgment and said conclusions of law are hereby vacated and set aside, and other and different conclusions of law are hereby ordered and made, and another and different judgment based upon such other and different conclusions of law is hereby ordered to be made and entered in said action.” Such other and different conclusions of law being as follows:

“That the contract entered into between the Superintendent of Streets of the Town of Corte Madera, a defendant herein, and S. P. Brownlee, as contractor named in the amended complaint herein, which contract was entered into in the month of August, 1923, to-wit: on the twenty-eighth (28th) day of August, 1923, was, and is, null and void.

“That the alleged assessment and the warrant accompanying the same, and recorded therewith on the twenty-fourth day of November, 1924, are, and each of them is, null and void.

“That the plaintiffs are respectively the owners of the several lots or parcels of land described in said amended complaint as amended according to the respective interests therein set forth; and that defendants have not, nor has any of said defendants, any right, title, estate or interest in or to any of said lots or parcels of land by reason of said assessment filed and entered as set forth in said findings of fact.