Case Name: SAN GABRIEL VALLEY LAND AND WATER COMPANY, Respondent, v. WITMER BROTHERS COMPANY, Appellant
Court: Supreme Court of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1892-12-02
Citations: 96 Cal. 623
Docket Number: No. 14324
Parties: SAN GABRIEL VALLEY LAND AND WATER COMPANY, Respondent, v. WITMER BROTHERS COMPANY, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Reports
Volume: 96
Pages: 623–641

Head Matter:
[No. 14324.
In Bank.—
December 2, 1892.]
SAN GABRIEL VALLEY LAND AND WATER COMPANY, Respondent, v. WITMER BROTHERS COMPANY, Appellant.
Taxation — Assessment — Interest of Mortgagee — Description of Mortgaged Premises — Division into Blocks and Lots. — An assessment of taxes to a mortgagee on the mortgage interest in land, which describes the mortgaged land as divided by the owner into blocks and lots before the levy of the assessment, sufficiently describes the land, although the mortgage described the land as an entire tract in a specified section and township, where it appears that the blocks and lots assessed to the mortgagee constitute the identical land described in the mortgage, and no more, and that the assessment is in substantial conformity to the statute, and in proper form for the assessment of a mortgage interest in town lots.
Id.—Recovery of Tax Paid by Mortgagor—Payment of Mortgage to Assignee — Action against Assignor Assessed. — Section 3627 of the Political Code, which gives the mortgagor of land who has paid the mortgage tax the right to deduct the amount of the tax from the mortgage at the time of payment, is permissive, and not mandatory or exclusive, in its terms, and does not prevent a mortgagor who has paid the mortgage debt without deduction of the tax to an assignee of the holder of the mortgage, to whom it was assessed, and who has been compelled to pay the mortgage tax to relieve his property from the lien, from bringing an action to recover the amount paid from the one to whom the mortgage was assessed, whose duty it was to pay it, and whose debt it is.
Id, — Evidence — Validity of Road and School Tax — Assessment-book — Prima Facie Case. — The introduction in evidence of an assessment-book, which is by statute prima fade evidence, not only of the assessment and bf the amount of the unpaid taxes, but also of the fact that all the forms of law in relation to the assessment and levy have been complied with, is sufficient proof of the validity of a road tax and special school tax, which are required to be levied by the supervisors and to appear upon the assessment-book.
Id. — Assessment to Owner of Mortgage — Assignment before Levy — Personal Liability of Assignor. — The owner of a mortgage is personally liable for the payment of a tax assessed upon it during his ownership of it, and his liability does not depend upon his continued * ownership of the mortgage until after the levy of the tax or until the time for payment arrives, and one who owned a mortgage on the first Monday of March, and to whom it was assessed, is not discharged by a mere assignment of the mortgage before the levy of the tax in October of the same year.
Assumpsit for Money Paid — Implied Request. — Where a plaintiff, either by compulsion of law, or to relieve himself from liability, or to save himself from damage, has paid money, not officiously, which the defendant ought to have paid, a count in assumpsit for money paid will be supported. In such case the law implies a request on the part of the defendant and a promise to repay, and the plaintiff has the same right of action as if he had paid the money at the defendant’s express request.
Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, and from an order denying a new trial.
The facts are stated in the opinion of Commissioner Vanclief.
Dooner & Burdett, for Appellant.
Judson, Hester & Russell, for Respondent.

Opinion:
The Court.
— After 'further consideration, we adhere to the opinion heretofore prepared by Commissioner Vanclief and adopted by the court at the former hearing, and for the reasons stated in that opinion, the judgment and order appealed from are affirmed.
McFarland, J., De Haven, J., Garoutte, J., Sharp-stein, J.