Labs v. Cooper
Before: Henshaw
Synopsis
Street Assessment—Diagram and Assessment—Recording—Variance. Any variance between the original and recorded diagram and assessment sufficient to prevent notice being given by an inspection of the record as to what property is sought to be subjected to the lien is material and fatal to the lien; but if the diagram and assessment, as recorded, do contain a sufficient description of the property, any variance from the original is immaterial.
Id.—Omission oe Points oe the Compass.—A recorded diagram of a street assessment in the city of Sacramento which omits every thing contained in the original indicating the points of the compass does not contain a sufficient description of the property, and no lien can be founded thereon.
Id.—Description by Number oe Lot—Reference to Map.—The description of a lot in the assessment and diagram merely by a particular number, which is the number that it bears on the official map of the city of Sacramento, is insufficient if there is nothing contained in the assessment referring to such official map. The court cannot take judicial notice that there is such a map, and the property owner is not chargeable with knowledge of it.
Henshaw, J. Appeal from the judgment rendered in favor of defendant in an action to foreclosure the lien of an assessment for street work.
The court found in favor of the plaintiff upon all his averments excepting that of the recordation of the diagram.
The diagram, as recorded, omitted the arrow and the initial letters N., E., S., and W., indicating the points [657]of the compass. The court concluded that there was no sufficient description of the property contained in the recorded assessment and diagram and passed judgment accordingly.
The arguments here urged in support of the sufficiency of the diagram were with few exceptions before this court in San Francisco v. Quackenbush, 53 Cal. 52, and Norton v. Courtney, 53 Cal. 691, and there held insufficient.
The purpose of the recordation being to carry notice by an inspection of the record to the owner and all others having dealings with the property that it is subject to a lien, it follows that any variance between the original and recorded instruments which defeats this purpose is material. Per contra, if the diagram and assessment as recorded do contain a sufficient description, then, in this regard, any departure from the original form will be held trifling and immaterial.
In the diagram as recorded, in the above cases, the relative locations of the streets to each other were shown, as were also the relative locations, frontages, and dimensions in feet of the lots assessed, and the lots bore appropriate assessment numbers. No difficulty would have been experienced by any one in fixing with mathematical accuracy the precise position of any piece of land sought to be charged, if only the points of the compass had been indicated. But without this indicator an owner could not determine from an inspection of the diagram and assessment where upon the map his land was platted, nor whether, in fact, it was delineated at all. It is true, he could determine these matters by a resort to outside aids, but the rule, id cerium est, quod certum reddi potest, has no application to descriptions under proceedings in invitum. In such cases the description must be sufficient to enable the owner to determine from an inspection of it whether his land is sought to be subjected to the lien.
The doctrine of these cases has been apparently modified in the later cases of Whiting v. Quackenbush, 54 Cal.
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