Brooks v. County of Tulare

The Court. This is an action to recover from, the defendant taxes alleged to have been erroneously and illegally collected, for the reason that the land upon which the taxes were assessed and collected was, at the time of the assessment, levy, and sale, government land of the United States, and not subject to taxation.

A general demurrer to the complaint was interposed and sustained, and plaintiff declining to amend, judgment was entered in favor of the defendant, from which judgment plaintiff appeals.

It is alleged in the complaint that on March 7, 1888, the tax collector of Tulare county duly offered for sale at public auction certain real property which had been regularly assessed for state and county taxes for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888; that at the time.of the sale the tax collector publicly stated to those present that said taxes had been duly and legally assessed and levied upon said real estate and had not been paid; that plaintiff, relying upon the statements so made, bid in the property for the amount represented to be due and unpaid thereon for taxes, costs, and charges, and thereupon paid to the tax collector the said sum, amounting in all to nine dollars and fifty-eight cents, which was thereafter duly paid into the county treasury; that the tax collector made out and delivered to plaintiff, in proper form, a certificate of sale of said land, which has never been redeemed by anyone, and is still owned and held by him; that the land upon which said taxes were assessed was, at the time of the assessment and at the time of the said tax sale, public land, owned by and the property of the United States, and not subject to taxation; that plaintiff purchased said land and paid said taxes in good faith, and without notice, knowledge, or information of any kind that said land was public land and not subject to taxation, and that he first discovered [467]said facts on or about October 1,1895, when he was preparing to apply for a tax deed of the purchased premises; that upon such discovery and that the amount so paid by him had been erroneously and illegally collected, plaintiff prepared a statement of his claim therefor, which was duly verified as to its correctness, and that the amount claimed, to wit, nine dollars and fifty-eight cents, was justly due him from defendant, and in November following presented the same to the board of supervisors of the county for allowance, together with documentary evidence showing that said land was public land and not subject to taxation; and that thereafter, on December 5,1895, the said board rejected and disallowed said claim and the whole thereof. Wherefore judgment is demanded against the defendant for the sum of nine dollars and fifty-eight cents, and legal interest thereon from the time of the rejection of the claim, and for costs of suit.