Smith v. Boston

ANGELLOTTI, J.

This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment in favor of defendant and from an order denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial in an action brought by him to quiet his alleged title to a lot of land in the city of Santa Monica, Los Angeles County.

It is admitted that plaintiff has no title to the property except such as he may have acquired by virtue of an attempted sale by the state on account of non-payment of state and county taxes for the year 1901. If plaintiff acquired no title thereby, admittedly defendant, who is shown by the evidence to have acquired the property in the year 1902 and to have ever since been in possession thereof and living thereon, paying all taxes levied thereon, was. entitled to judgment against plaintiff.

It will be necessary to notice but one of the many points made in support of the judgment.

It was found as a fact by the trial court, in response to the issue made by the complaint and answer, that the plaintiff is not the owner of the premises mentioned in the complaint, nor of any part thereof, and has no interest in or to said premises. The finding is in no way dependent upon of inconsistent with other findings of certain specific facts, and without regard to such other findings constitutes sufficient support for and compels the judgment that was given. This finding is fully sustained by the evidence, as we shall proceed to show.

The attempted sale by the state, through the tax-collector of Los Angeles County, was in the year 1908, and the last assessment “next before the sale” was in the year 1907. The transcript on appeal shows that the property was then assessed, as it had been for the year 1906, to “Andrew J. Boston,” and that his address was given in such assessment of 1907 as “Santa Monica,” and in the assessment of 1906 as “232 S. Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, California.” It furthermore showed “tax statements and receipts to Andrew J. Boston” for the years 1904 and 1905. It was claimed on a motion by plaintiff to amend the transcript, heard at the time of the argument of

[343]

this appeal, that the engrossed and settled statement on motion for new trial states that the assessment for the year 1907 was to "Andrew J. Borton,” instead of “Andrew J. Boston.” This was denied by defendant, and the case was submitted for decision with the understanding that if it was found to be a material matter, the submission would be set aside and an opportunity given plaintiff to substantiate his claim. We are satisfied that a determination of this question regarding the correctness of the transcript is not essential to a proper disposition of this appeal, and that it may be assumed that the name of the property-owner was given in the assessment of 1907 as "Andrew J. Borton.” It still remains that the record shows that the address of the person to whom the property was assessed was given on the assessment as “Santa Monica.” It is established