DeFlon v. Van Lue

WOOD, J. Defendant appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in this action to quiet title to real property. The complaint alleged that plaintiff was the owner and in possession of the property, that defendant claimed an interest therein adverse to plaintiff, and that the claim was without any right whatever. The defendant denied those allegations, except the one as to the interest claimed by him; and he alleged in his answer that “this defendant admits that the said estate claims title thereto.” At the trial plaintiff offered 'in evidence a tax deed executed by the tax collector of Los Angeles County, as grantor, purporting to convey the said property to the plaintiff, as grantee. Defendant objected to that offer on the grounds that it was incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, and that no proper foundation had been laid. The court overruled the objection and received the deed in evidence. Thereupon plaintiff rested his case, and then the defendant, without offering any evidence,' rested his case. Findings were not made, and were not waived.

Defendant contends that a tax deed from the state to a purchaser at a tax sale is insufficient to establish title in the purchaser. Plaintiff did not file a brief on appeal.

As above stated, the only evidence presented by plaintiff was the tax deed from the state. There was no evidence that the property had been conveyed by deed to the state. A deed to the state is a necessary part of the proof required in establishing title based upon a tax deed. (Jones v. Luckel, 174 Cal. 532, 534 [163 P. 906] ; County Bank v. Jack, 148 Cal. 437, 441, 442 [83 P. 705, 113 Am St. Rep. 285]; Swann v. Carson, 56 Cal.App.2d 502 [132 P.2d 863].)

In the case of Jones v. Luckel, supra, defendant attempted to prove his title to land by introducing in evidence the tax deed from the state to himself. In that ease the court stated at page 534: “He introduced no deed whatever in evidence to show that the state had ever acquired any title to the land [290]from the predecessor in interest of plaintiff, or from herself, or at all. This could only be shown by the production of a deed to the state made on a sale to it after delinquency by the owner in the payment of his taxes assessed against it. As there was no such deed to the state produced in evidence, there was no sufficient showing that the defendant had ever acquired title to the property against plaintiff.”

The case of Swann v. Carson, supra, 56 Cal.App.2d 502, is similar to the present case. The plaintiff therein, who claimed title under a tax deed, introduced in evidence a deed from the state, then rested, and on appeal did not file a brief. The court therein held that plaintiff failed to establish title in himself because there was no evidence that the property had been conveyed by deed to the state. (See, also, Johnson, Inc. v. Warden, 76 Cal.App.2d 697 [173 P.2d 838].)