Carroll v. Bostwick

SHAW, J.

Action to determine the validity of certain tax-deeds purporting to have been made by the state to defendant, pursuant to the provisions of certain sections of the Political Code for delinquent taxes for the year 1904, and under and by virtue of which defendant claims to have acquired plaintiff’s title to the town lots described in the complaint. Judgment went for plaintiff, from which, and an order denying a motion for a new trial, defendant appeals.

Without discussing other alleged defects in the deeds and proceedings, the order and judgment must be affirmed on account of noncompliance on the part of the tax-collector with the provisions of section 3897 of the Political Code. This section requires that the tax-collector, as a prerequisite to a valid sale by the state of property purchased by it for delinquent taxes, shall cause a notice of such sale to be published for three

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successive weeks prior to the date fixed for the sale, and “shall mail a copy of said notice, postage thereon prepaid and registered, to the party to whom the land was last assessed next before the sale, at his last known post-office address.” The copy of the notice required to be published must, where the name of the party to whom the property was last assessed is known, be mailed at least three weeks before the sale.

(Healton

v.

Morrison,

162 Cal. 668, [124 Pac. 240];

Brady

v.

Bostwick,

21 Cal. App. 526, [132 Pac. 472];

Henderson

v.

Ward,

21 Cal. App. 520, [132 Pac. 470].) The sale of the land by the state was made on June 7, 1911, and the only evidence purporting to show a compliance with the provisions of said section claimed to constitute