Reclamation District No. 551 v. Runyon

Henshaw, J. Plaintiff instituted this proceeding as contemplated by section 5493-J of the Political Code, seeking a determination of the validity of an assessment which it had caused to be levied for purposes of reclamation. Summons was served upon all the property owners in the district. They suffered default, saving the defendant Van Loben Seis, who appeared and contested. From the judgment, which was adverse to his contention, and from the order denying a new trial, he prosecutes these appeals.

1. It is first insisted that plaintiff is not legally organized. The argument here is precisely that pressed upon our consideration in People v. Reclamation District No. 551, ante, p. 114, adversely to appellant’s views.

2. Defendant is consul of the republic of Paraguay, and has pleaded his consular privileges in bar of this proceeding. We need not stop to" decide whether, under the amendment of 1875 to the Federal Judicature Act, the courts of a state may take jurisdiction of actions in personam against consuls of a foreign country. That question is now under consideration by this court in Bank, and its decision need not be anticipated. For this proceeding is not an action in personam, and, while it is not in strictness a proceeding in rem either, it partakes rather of the nature of the latter. It is designed as one of the processes to test the legal perfection of an assessment levied by a reclamation district. The property owner is entitled to a hearing at one time or another upon the question of benefits. (Reclamation Dist. v. Evans, 61 Cal. 104; Reclamation Dist. v. Phillips, 108 [166]Cal. 306; Hagar v. Reclamation Dist., 111 U. S. 701.) Before the passage of section 3493-¡- of the Political Code he made his showing when action was brought to enforce the assessment. But to obviate difficulties and delays which thus arose, this peculiar proceeding was established. By it is provided a forum before which a property owner may go and make full proof of his objections to the assessment. The final determination of the court upon the matter may be used by or against him in any future action to collect the tax. Thus it gives the property owner the hearing to which he is entitled, but provides that such hearing may take place in advance of an action upon the assessment. It is, then, a process of law forming one of the steps by which the lien of the tax is fixed upon property. We entertain no doubt that a foreign consul may be bound by all legal processes and proceedings in state courts having this end in view. No more responsibility attaches to the person of the consul in such a proceeding than arises in an action to enforce the assessment, or than is occasioned by his appearance before a county board for the equalization of his assessment for purposes of state and county taxation. We conclude that the_ plea of consular privilege is not well taken.