Case ID: cal_53/html/0409-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court, Rhodes J.:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[No. 5831.]
    GEORGE CLARK v. GEORGE K. PORTER et als.
    Street Assessment—Judgment.—In an action brought on a street assessment, in which it is admitted by the pleadings that several defendants are the owners of the lot, it is erroneous to order judgment for the amount of the assessment against only one of the defendants.
    Appeal from the District Court of the Third Judicial District, City and County of San Francisco.
    Action- on a street assessment. The plaintiff had judgment, and defendant Porter appealed. The facts are stated in the opinion.
    
      
      William Levison, for Appellant.
    
      J. C. Bates, for Respondent.
   By the Court, Rhodes J.:

Action to recover a street assessment. It is alleged in the complaint that defendant Porter and several other persons, who are made defendants, are the owners of the lot charged with the lien of the assessment; and the allegation is not denied by the answer of the defendant Porter. At the hearing, the plaintiff, against the objection of Porter, dismissed the-action as to all of the defendants except Porter, and the Court gave judgment against Porter alone, without any amendment of the complaint. This was error. The thirteenth section of the Act as amended in 1870 (Stats, p. 898) provides that the action shall be brought “ against the owners and all persons having an interest ” in the property sought to be charged. (See San Francisco v. Doe, 48 Cal. 560.) It was not contemplated by the statute that the interest of only one, or of any number less than all, of the joint owners of the property should be subjected to sale for the satisfaction of the lien of the assessment.

Judgment and order reversed, and cause remanded for a new trial.

Mr. Justice Niles did not express an opinion.