San Diego Investment Co. v. Shaffer

THE COURT.

This is an application upon verified petition to compel defendant as auditor of San Diego County to furnish correct estimates of the amounts required to redeem certain lands sold to the state for delinquent taxes on July 1, 1895. Certain questions were presented upon demurrer, and after determining the questions of law thus raised, the court ordered judgment that the writ issue in accordance with the rulings on demurrer. Both parties appeal from the judgment. It is not necessary to discuss in detail the various items and the rulings of the court in connection therewith. The statute in force at the time of the sale, and by which the right to redeem must be governed, is section 3817 of the Political Code as amended in February, 1895. The statute, so far as applicable here, provided that after the sale of land to the state the owner should be entitled to redeem upon paying “the amount of taxes due thereon at the time of said sale, with interest thereon at the rate of seven per cent per annum; and also all taxes that were a lien upon said real estate at the time said taxes became delinquent; and also for each year since the sale for which taxes on said land have not been paid, an amount equal to the percentage of taxes for that year upon the value of the real estate as assessed for that year;

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or, if not so assessed, then upon the value of the property as assessed in the year nearest the time of such redemption, with, interest from the first day of January of each of said years, respectively, at the same rate, to the time of redemption; and also all costs and expenses of such redemption, as hereinafter specified, and penalties as follows, to wit: Ten per cent if redeemed within six months from the date of sale; twenty per cent if redeemed within one year therefrom; forty per cent if redeemed within two years therefrom; sixty per cent if redeemed within three years therefrom; eighty per cent if redeemed within four years therefrom; and one hundred per cent if redeemed within five or any greater number of years therefrom. The penalty shall be computed upon the amount of each year’s taxes in like manner, reckoning from the time when the lands would have been sold for the taxes of that year, if there had been no previous sale thereof. ’ ’

Under the above statute the interest should have been computed upon the taxes “due thereon at the time of sale,” and not upon any penalties or costs.