West Coast Life Insurance v. Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District

TUTTLE, J. This action was brought to cancel a contract executed by defendant district, and defendant H. C. Stovall. Findings were made in favor of defendants upon all issues, and judgment was entered accordingly. The appeal is from the judgment.

The litigation arises out of the affairs of the Williams Improvement District situated within the boundaries of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, and organized under the Statutes of 1927 (Statutes of 1927, p. 1415, Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1937, Act 3877a) authorizing such organization to meet the situation of any tract or contiguous tracts of land within any irrigation district and susceptible of irrigation by a system of laterals, ditches and pipes or requiring a system of pumps for the irrigation thereof separate and apart from the main irrigation system of said district.

Section 10 of the act reads as follows:

“Said board of directors and all other officers of said irrigation district shall have all the rights, powers and privileges concerning said improvement district, and lands thereof and the proceedings herein provided for, as such board may have concerning the irrigation district, of which it is a part, and including the right of said district to condemn lands and to acquire, own and hold property within said improvement districts.”

Under the statute, the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, through its directors, had the supervision and control of the [206]Williams Improvement District and exercised the same powers as conferred upon them by the Irrigation District Act.

Plaintiff is the owner and holder of certain obligations of the improvement district, known as warrants, which were issued by the irrigation district, which agreed to pay them. Such warrants matured January 1, 1932. They were unpaid when this action was commenced.

On April 2, 1936, the district was the owner, through tax sales, of practically all the land within the boundaries of Williams Improvement District, legally entitled, “Improvement District Number One of Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District.” The price was $28,061.08, the amount of delinquent assessments, penalties and costs. The district was the sole bidder at such sales. On said date the irrigation district, through its board of directors, entered into a contract with defendant Stovall for the sale of said lands. Title to said land was to remain in the district until the full purchase price was paid and all conditions of the contract performed by Stovall. The total acreage sold was about 4000. By the terms of Stovall’s contract he was given the right to purchase three thousand nine hundred sixty-five and 11/100 acres of lands in the district for the sum of $22,216.48. There was no cash payment. The first payment of $3,500 was to be evidenced by the promissory note of the buyer due August 1, 1936, with interest at the rate of five per cent per annum. The balance of the purchase price was payable in semiannual installments of $935.82 with five per cent interest, payable on or before the first day of January and the first day of July in each consecutive year, commencing January 1, 1937. The contract also provided for: Payment by Stovall of all delinquent state taxes, which the evidence shows amounted to $17,000; payment by Stovall annually of “an amount equal to the amount which would be levied by the Irrigation District as assessments on such land for that year if legal title thereof were in buyer”; payment by Stovall annually or semi-annually of “all State and County taxes, levied upon said property during the 10 year term of this agreement”; payment guaranteed by Stovall of all tolls and charges “for water furnished by seller during the term of this agreement to any or all of the land, regardless of the person to whom such water is furnished”; payment by Stovall of an annual stand-by charge of $1,800 in the event