Citizens National Trust & Savings Bank v. Brown

SHAW, J. pro tem. Plaintiff appeals from a judgment adverse to it in an action to quiet its title to real property. The only evidence of title produced by plaintiff was a tax deed of the property to Olivia Duer, and a grant deed of the property by her to plaintiff. The defendants did not plead title in themselves, but merely denied plaintiff’s title. They now undertake to support the judgment in their favor on the grounds that by a former adjudication binding on plaintiff its tax title was determined to be invalid, and that on the proof here the tax deed was void.

Taking up first the claim of former adjudication, it appears that after plaintiff’s tax deed was made, an action to quiet title to the property in question was brought in the superior court by the personal representative of the owner of the property, whose title was divested by the tax deed, if valid, against Olivia Duer, who was then the holder of title under the tax deed. Martha F. Brown, one of the defendants herein, [690]was substituted as plaintiff in that action and it then went to trial, with the result that on April 6, 1931, the court made a minute order reading as follows: ‘ ‘ Cause having been heard heretofore and submitted, whereupon it is now ordered that plaintiff have judgment on condition of payment to defendants of $420.56, taxes paid.” It does not appear that findings were waived and no findings were ever made, nor was any judgment entered until the proceedings next stated were had. On Hay 2, 1940, an order substituting the plaintiff in the present action as defendant in that action was made. The substituted defendant there then made a motion for judgment in its favor on a showing that the plaintiff there had not complied with the minute order of April 6, 1931, above set forth. The court made an order denying this motion and directing a dismissal of the action and thereafter, on September 16, 1940, a judgment was rendered which, after its preliminary recitals, was as follows: “Now, therefore, it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the motion of the substituted defendant for an order that it take judgment quieting its title to that certain parcel of real propery described as: [describing the property now in question] is denied, and the action is dismissed, each party to bear his or its own costs.”

Defendants rely on the judgment just quoted as an adjudication that plaintiff’s tax title is invalid. This contention cannot be upheld. To establish a plea of former adjudication the prime essential is an adjudication of the matter in question; or, as subdivision 2 of section 1908 of the Code of Civil Procedure, on which defendants rely, states it, “the judgment or order is, in respect to the matter directly adjudged, conclusive,” etc. The particular part of the judgment on which defendants’ contention rests is the statement that “the motion of the substituted defendant for an order that it take judgment quieting its title” to the property here in question “is denied.” This does not constitute an adjudication regarding the title of the substituted defendant, but a mere refusal to make such an adjudication.- Prom an opinion filed by the trial judge in the former action it appears that the motion for judgment was based on plaintiff’s failure to comply with the minute order above quoted, and that the court’s action upon it was taken on the authority of Newcomb v. City of Newport Beach, (1938) 12 Cal. (2d) 235 [83 P. (2d) 21], That case holds that an owner who fails to comply with a condition that he reimburse the purchaser before he can have a judgment quieting title against a tax sale does not thereby