Mais v. Poinsettia Land Co.

SHINN, J. Plaintiffs, claiming title under a tax deed, brought this action to quiet title to a lot in a subdivision located in the city of Compton in Los Angeles County. Defendant, Poinsettia Land Company, the former owner, is the present owner of the property unless plaintiffs’ tax title is valid. The court found that plaintiffs are the owners of the land, thereby determining their tax title to be good, and rendered judgment accordingly. Defendant appeals.

The property was deeded to the state in 1933, following a sale for taxes levied for the fiscal year 1927-28. It was deeded by the state to the city of Compton in 1943 and was later deeded to plaintiffs by the city. At the time of the assessment the property was in the Compton Union High School District and the levy was in part for the benefit of the district.

Two grounds of alleged invalidity are asserted by defendant. It is contended (1) that in fixing the tax rate for 1927-28 the board of supervisors miscalculated and underestimated by $61,554.38 the portion of the revenue to be received from the tax upon unsecured personal property; that the resulting rate was .0021 higher by reason of such miscalculation, and that it resulted in the payment of excessive taxes upon real and secured personal property, the overcharge upon the lot in question amounting to more than one cent. The second ground of attack is that the assessment roll failed to show the Compton Union High School District as one of the school or revenue districts in which the property was located, as required by then section 3650(11) of the Political Code. Each of these defects in the proceedings is relied upon by appellant as sufficient to render void the certificate of sale and the deed to the-state under which plaintiffs claim.

[349]The ground of invalidity predicated upon the failure to take into consideration in fixing the budget all of the revenue to be derived from the tax on unsecured personal property, which resulted in an excessive rate and tax upon real property and secured personal property, was passed upon by the Supreme Court in City of Compton v. Boland (1945), 26 Cal.2d 310 [158 P.2d 397], the assessment and levy there considered being those of Los Angeles County for the same fiscal year, namely, 1927-28. The tax deed title of the city was upheld, one of the grounds of the decision being that the illegal method followed by the board of supervisors was one which might have been authorized by the Legislature initially, that it therefore was subject to validation by subsequent legislation, and that the questioned proceedings were validated by the Curative Act of 1943 (Stats. 1943, p. 1993; Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 8443) Recognizing this ground of the decision in the Boland ease as one which is decisive upon the point, we hold that the proceedings which resulted in the inequality of which defendant complains were validated by the curative act.