Rudell v. Collins

SLOSS, J.

Action to quiet title. The plaintiff claims under a tax sale and deed. The court gave judgment dismissing the action upon payment by the defendant to the plaintiff of the amount bid at the tax sale. The plaintiff appeals from the judgment and from an order denying her motion for a new trial.

On August 8, 1911, the property was conveyed to the state of California for nonpayment of taxes levied in the year 1905. A deed was made by the tax collector of San Bernardino County to plaintiff’s predecessor on January 22, 1912. This instrument recited, among other things, the due publication of a notice of sale to take place on the twenty-second day of January, 1912, and that the tax collector did, on the twelfth day of January, 1912, “mail a copy of said notice, postage thereon prepaid and registered to the party to whom the land was last assessed next before such sale at his last known post-office address, Redlands, Cal.”

Under section 3897 of the Political Code, the mailing of the notice, where the postoffice address of the party to whom the land was last assessed is known, is a prerequisite to the authority of the tax collector to make the sale.

(Smith

v.

Furlong,

160 Cal. 522, [117 Pac. 527];

Campbell

v.

Moran,

161 Cal. 325, [119 Pac. 89];

Smith

v.

Boston,

161 Cal. 341, [119 Pac. 91];

Wright

v.

Anglo-Californian Bank,

161 Cal. 500, [119 Pac. 651];

Krotzer

v.

Douglas,

163 Cal. 49, [124 Pac. 722].)

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