Wyser v. Truitt

273 P. 147, 95 Cal. App. 727, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 539
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 22, 1928
DocketDocket No. 3654.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 273 P. 147 (Wyser v. Truitt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wyser v. Truitt, 273 P. 147, 95 Cal. App. 727, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 539 (Cal. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

PLUMMER, J.

Action by the plaintiff to quiet title to lot 18, Factory Center Tract, in the county of Los Angeles. The plaintiff had judgment and the defendant William Lender appeals.

The plaintiff’s title is based upon a conveyance from Alfred A. Burt, the record owner, the deed from Burt to the plaintiff being executed and delivered while the grantor Alfred A. Burt was in possession of the lot in question. The appellant’s title is founded upon a deed from the tax collector of Los Angeles County.

The complaint sets out that the plaintiff, at the time of filing the complaint, and for a long time prior thereto had been and was the owner and in the possession of the premises referred to; that the defendants claim and assert an interest therein adverse to plaintiff, and that the claims of *729 the defendants, and each of them, were without right, etc. The complaint contains a prayer that the defendants be required to set forth "their title if any; that the plaintiff have judgment as prayed for, etc. The court found that all the allegations of the complaint are true and correct in so far as the same relate to lot 18 in block 5, Factory Center Tract, as per map recorded in book 22, pages 18 and 19 of maps, in the office of the recorder of Los Angeles County, and also that all the allegations of the answer of the defendant William Lender are untrue, except that the defendant has paid taxes, including penalties and costs, on said lot 18, which with interest thereon then amounted to $45; and also that the said defendant William Lender had, in good faith, erected certain buildings partly on lot 18. The judgment required the plaintiff to pay to Lender the amount of taxes, together with interest on such amount at seven per cent per annum, paid by the defendant Lender, and also granted permission to the defendant Lender to remove any building that he had placed on lot 18, or partly on lot 18.

The cause is before us upon a bill of exceptions.

The respondent makes the preliminary objection that the court cannot consider the insufficiency of the evidence to support the findings in this cause, for the reason that the specifications set forth in the bill of exceptions do not attack any of the findings. This objection appears to be well taken. The specifications set forth first: That the court abused its discretion in denying the defendant a continuance of the trial of the case for a week or ten days; and second: That the evidence does not support the decision in this, that in this character of a case the plaintiff was obliged to prove title in herself from a paramount source, it having been shown that defendant Lender was in actual possession of the said lands described in the action; that plaintiff failed to establish title and failed to show the necessary evidence to prove title in plaintiff. It was therefore error for the court to allow plaintiff to attack defendant’s title; and third: That the decision is against law in that the court erred in overruling the defendant’s objections to the sufficiency of the plaintiff’s evidence to establish title in plaintiff. Fourth: That there was no evidence to show any invalidity of the defendant’s title.

*730 In Beeson v. Schloss, 183 Cal. 618 [192 Pac. 292], the court said: “The question of the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the findings cannot be considered on appeal from the judgment where the bill of exceptions relied on contains no specifications of the insufficiency of the evidence.’’ (Citing Miller v. Miller, 175 Cal. 799 [Ann. Cas. 1918E, 184, L. R. A. 1918B, 415, 167 Pac. 394]; Carter v. McCanty, 181 Cal. 749 [186 Pac. 346].) “Consequently, we are unable to consider the point that the evidence in the case does not sustain the findings.” The same ruling was held in the case of Schultz v. City of Venice, 200 Cal. 50 [251 Pac. 913],

Notwithstanding the insufficiency of the specifications in that they do not attack the findings of the court or set forth wherein the evidence is insufficient to sustain the findings, we have examined the transcript and find that the testimony shows that at the time of the execution of the deed from Alfred A. Burt, Alfred A. Burt was in possession of the premises referred to, claiming to be the owner thereof, and occupied the position of an owner and grantor in possession. This was a sufficient source from which to deraign title by the plaintiff. (Rockey v. Vieux, 179 Cal. 681 [158 Pac. 712].) It may be stated here that whatever title the appellant claimed is derived from the tax deed based upon an alleged assessment of lot 18 against Alfred A. Burt as the owner thereof. Thus, both claimants, if title is possessed by either, deraign the same from a common source. After showing title in herself, the plaintiff introduced affidavits establishing the invalidity of the assessment constituting the basis upon which a deed was thereafter executed by and on the part of the state of California, through which source title was purported to be conveyed to the defendant William Lender. The assessment was in the following words: “No. 1590 Factory Center, as per Bk. 23, P. 1819 Maps, records of L. A. County, Lot 18, Blk. 5, assessed to Alfred A. Burt Lowest acceptable bid $1.14.” The notice of sale was in the same language and concluded with the statement that it would be sold for the amount due including penalties and costs, without stating or indicating the amount due on account of penalties to be added to the delinquent taxes, and also failed to indicate in any way that penalties were included in the amount of the tax. In the ease of *731 Bussenius v. Warden, 71 Cal. App. 717 [236 Pac. 371], such a description of the properties sold and the amount of money to be paid therefor, as set forth in the notice in this case, has been held insufficient to sustain a tax deed. After reciting the facts in that case, which are exactly the same, relating to the assessment and published notice of sale, as the circumstances with which we are dealing, the court there said: “It thus appears that although the proposed sale was conditional upon non-payment of penalties, the delinquent list as published was defective in that it failed to state the amount of those penalties. Respondents contend, and apparently there is no answer thereto, that by reason of this defect, the subsequent sale to the State was void, and that consequently the deed relied upon by appellant was likewise void.” The state of California not having acquired a good title to the lot in question, by reason of the sale to it, could not, of course, convey anything additional to what it had acquired upon such sale. The record shows that after obtaining a deed from the state of California to lot 18, based upon the tax sale and conveyance in pursuance thereof, the defendant Lender began an action to quiet title and obtained judgment quieting title as against two certain defendants named, respectively, Title Insurance and Trust Company, a corporation, and Frank W. Dishbrow. No judgment was entered against the grantor of the plaintiff in this action. The record shows that some time prior to the beginning of the last action to quiet title, Alfred A.

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Bluebook (online)
273 P. 147, 95 Cal. App. 727, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 539, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wyser-v-truitt-calctapp-1928.