Court Opinion

ID: 9790200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:48:46.34814+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:27.337060
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J., Dissenting.
The majority opinion fails to specify any statutory requirement that the notices of sale did not meet. It states that the trial court found the notices of sale fatally defective because they omitted the word “penalties” in stating the amount due. Actually, however, there is no finding by the trial court as to why the notices were invalid or in what manner they departed from the statutes then in effect.
If any irregularity exists it is essential that it be identified. If there was no departure from the statutory requirements the tax deeds are valid; if there was, it is necessary to determine whether it was of a kind that could be remedied under the curative act of 1943. The statutes governing the publication of the delinquent lists are sections 3764 and 3765 of the Political Code.

The Requirements of Section 3764 Were Fully Met.

Section 3764 as it read in 1912 and 1918, when the lists were published, provided that at certain prescribed times the *786tax collector “must publish the delinquent list, which must contain the names of the persons and a description of the property delinquent, and the amount of taxes, penalties, and costs due, opposite each name and description.” The delinquent lists in the present ease were published at the prescribed times and contained the names of the persons and a description of the property followed by a figure representing the amount due, as required by section 3764. The plaintiff made no attempt to prove that this figure did not correctly represent the total amount of taxes, penalties, and costs due. Since presumably public officials follow the law and perform their duties properly, it must be assumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the figure opposite each description represented such amount. (Code Civ. Proc., see. 1963(15); Bray v. Jones, 20 Cal.2d 858, 860 [129 P.2d 364].) Moreover, at the times of the execution of the deeds in question Political Code section 3786 provided: “Such deed, duly acknowledged or proved, is primary evidence that ... (5) At a proper time and place the property was sold as prescribed by law, and by the proper officer; . . .,” and Political Code section 3787 provided: “Such deed, duly acknowledged or proved is (except as against actual fraud) conclusive evidence of the regularity of all other proceedings, from the assessment by the assessor, inclusive, up to the execution of the deed.” It should be noted that while the delinquent list must contain the amount of taxes, penalties, and costs, there is no requirement that it state that it does so. The requirements of section 3764 were therefore fully met.

The Requirements of Section 3765 Were Fully Met.

Section 3765, as it read when the lists were published, provided : ‘ ‘ The tax collector must append and publish with the delinquent list a notice that unless the taxes delinquent, together with the costs and penalties, are paid, the real property upon which such taxes are a lien will be sold.” The notice in the present case was .phrased in substantially the language of that section: “Now, Therefore, I, W. C. Welch, Tax Collector in and for the County of Los Angeles, by virtue of authority in me vested by law, hereby give public notice that unless the taxes delinquent as appear by said list, together with the costs and penalties, are paid, I as said Tax Collector, at the office of the County Tax Collector, in the City of Los Angeles, on Monday, the First Day of July, *7871912, at the hour of 10 o’clock, A. M. will sell all said real estate upon which taxes are a lien to the State of California. ’ ’ (Italics added.) There was thus no omission of the word “penalties” or any other word the inclusion of which was required by section 3765. The validity of such a notice was sustained by this court in Bray v. Jones, 20 Cal.2d 858, 861 [129 P.2d 364], and the language there used applies with equal force to the present case: “When, as in this case, the notice sets forth the name of the person whose property is assessed, a description of the property, and ‘an amount equal to the total amount of all taxes, assessments, penalties and costs due’ and provides that the property will be sold unless the taxes delinquent, together with interest and penalties are paid, the notice conforms to the requirements of Political Code, sections 3764 and 3765.”

The Omission of the Word “Penalties” in a statement by the Tax Collector, Not Prescribed by Statute, Was Not Designed to Indicate an Exclusion of Penalties from the Amount Due.

If there .was any irregularity in the publication of the delinquent lists it must be found in the violation of some principle not prescribed by the statutes of this state. The plaintiff attributes the invalidity of the proceedings to the omission of the word “penalties” in a notice not prescribed by statute but appended by the tax collector at the end of the delinquent list, reading as follows:
“Dollars and Cents
“Public notice is hereby given that the figures appearing opposite, following and last after each description of property in the foregoing Delinquent Tax List for 1911, of and for the County of Los Angeles, were intended to and do represent respectively in Dollars or in Cents, or in Dollars and Cents, as the case may be, the amount due for taxes and costs in the manner as follows, to-wit:
“When or where two figures appear therein, Cents were intended to be and are represented, when or where more than two figures thus appear therein, Cents were intended to be and are represented by the last two figures, and the figures occupying and appearing at the left of the said last two figures, and separated therefrom by a space were intended to and do represent Dollars, so that the amount due for *788taxes and costs in the respective cases aforesaid are thus expressed in Dollars and Cents."
Obviously the purpose of this statement was to explain that the figures represented dollars and cents, and the refer-ence to taxes and costs was incidental to that explanation. It was not the purpose of this statement to set forth what the dollars and cents represented, and its omission of the word "penalties" cannot therefore be regarded as an intention to exclude penalties from the amount due. There was nothing misleading in the omission of the word "penalties," for the tax collector had not only complied fully with sections 3764 and 3765, which govern the publication of the delinquent lists, but he had stated clearly in the addenda notice published in 1917 that "no bid for said property will be accepted for less than the amount of all taxes, penalties and costs due on said property for the year same was originally struck off and sold to the state (in 1912 for taxes of the year 1911) which minimum amount is set forth opposite the description of said property.” The cases relied upon by the plaintiff and cited in the majority opinion not only failed to show that the notice violated any statute, but erroneously assumed that the statutes required the tax collector to append a statement that the figures represented taxes, penalties, and costs. Since there is no such statutory requirement and no other reason appears why the error should render the notices invalid, these cases should be disapproved.
The majority opinion quotes from Bray v. Jones, 20 Cal.2d 858, 862 [129 P.2d 364], as follows: "The failure to set forth the amount due for penalties, emphasized by the statements in the notices that penalties were not included, was plainly in violation of the statute as it then read.” This statement was made in distinguishing that case from what had commonly been understood to be the holding in Gottstein v. Kelly, 206 Cal. 742 [276 P. 347], that section 3764 required taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs to be separately stated. It cannot be dissociated from the sentence immediately preceding it: "In any event the eases relied upon by the defendant were concerned with section 3764 when, as interpreted by Gottstein v. Kelly, supra, it required taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs to be separately stated." This general understanding of the holding in the Gottstein case prompted the legislation in 1929 to clarify *789the section and validate previous notices thereunder (Stats. 1929, p. 742) and it therefore appeared unnecessary in Bray v. Jones to revive an issue as to the holding in the Gottstein case.
Further consideration of the Gottstein case discloses that it did not actually hold that taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs had to he separately stated. In that case several lots were separately assessed to the same person, and the notice of sale was held invalid because it showed the aggregate amount of taxes, penalties, and costs for all the lots instead of setting forth the proportionate amount thereof opposite each description as prescribed by the section. The court did not hold, as has been commonly assumed, that section 3764 required taxes, penalties, and costs to be separately stated. It held that when parcels in single ownership are separately assessed, the taxes, penalties, and costs due for each parcel must be set forth opposite the description thereof as provided by section 3764, so that the owner can determine the amount necessary to redeem any parcel that he may wish to redeem apart from the others. While the court referred to Cordano v. Kelsey, 28 Cal.App. 9 [151 P. 391, 398], holding that under Political Code, section 3897, as it read in 1911, taxes, penalties, and costs must be separately stated in the notice of sale under that section, this holding was not made applicable to section 3764. There was no necessity for such an application in view of the failure to set forth the amount due opposite each description as required by section 3764. In any event, had the Legislature intended to provide that taxes, penalties, and costs be separately stated it could have done so unequivocally. Its choice of the singular “the amount” of taxes, penalties, and costs plainly indicates that an aggregate amount was to be set forth opposite each description so that the owner would know the amount necessary to redeem his property. The opinion in Gottstein v. Kelly does not point to any language in section 3764 requiring that these items be separately stated or attempt to show how the section could be construed to make such a requirement. Since the Gottstein case did not hold what the quotation from Bray v. Jones assumed it held, and the majority opinion recognizes that it did not, that quotation cannot now be taken from its context to serve as a recognition “of the correctness •of the prior holdings.”
*790Even if the statutes governing the present case had required the tax collector to append a statement that the figures represented taxes, penalties, and costs, his omission of the word “penalties” from the statement is cured by the 1943 act. That act cannot be held unconstitutional without repudiating principles that have been the established law of this state since its earliest days. In 1859, in Moore v. Patch, 12 Cal. 265, involving legislation confirming a delinquent tax list, the court recognized the power of the Legislature to pass curative statutes validating proceedings in the levying and collecting of taxes notwithstanding irregularities therein, and this power has been reaffirmed in many cases since that time. (Cowell v. Doub, 12 Cal. 273; People v. Holladay, 25 Cal. 300, 301; Wetherbee v. Dunn, 32 Cal. 106, 108; People v. McCreery, 34 Cal. 432; People v. Goldtree, 44 Cal. 323; Rollins v. Wright, 93 Cal. 395 [29 P. 58]; Haaren v. High, 97 Cal. 445 [32 P. 518]; Ramish v. Hartwell, 126 Cal. 443 [58 P. 920]; Chase v. Trout, 146 Cal. 350 [80 P. 81]; Baird v. Monroe, 150 Cal. 560 [89 P. 352]; Carter v. Osborn, 150 Cal. 620 [89 P. 608]; Peck v. Fox, 154 Cal. 744 [99 P. 189]; Imperial Land Co. v. Imperial Irrigation District, 173 Cal. 660 [161 P. 113]; Clayton v. Schultz, 4 Cal.2d 425 [50 P.2d 446]; Schamblin v. Means, 6 Cal.App. 261 [91 P. 1020]; City of Santa Monica v. Los Angeles County, 15 Cal.App. 710 [115 P. 945]; Stuart v. Chapman, 87 Cal.App. 552, 553 [262 P. 348].) Only those acts or omissions that the Legislature is restrained by constitutional limitations from sanctioning in advance, often characterized as “jurisdictional,” cannot be validated by curative statutes. (See 24 Cal.Jur. 30.) The confusion that arose from describing as jurisdictional, irregularities that violated only material statutory requirements, without inquiring whether or not they were also in violation of the state or federal Constitution, prompted an examination of the whole subject in an exhaustive opinion for the court by Justice Shaw in Chase v. Trout, supra. That opinion reiterated the rule that a curative statute may preclude the investigation of all questions except whether the statute if enacted in advance would violate the due process clause or other provisions of the state or federal Constitution. As to all “other statutory steps or acts, the same power which prescribes them is competent to declare that their non-observance shall not be fatal to the validity of the *791tax and that no inquiry may be made concerning them.” (Chase v. Trout, supra, at p. 359; Swayne & Hoyt Ltd. v. United States, 300 U.S. 297 [57 S.Ct. 478, 81 L.Ed. 659] ; Graham & Foster v. Goodcell, 282 U.S. 409 [51 S.Ct. 186, 75 L.Ed. 415]; Charlotte Harbor & N. R. Co. v. Wells, 260 U.S. 8 [43 S.Ct. 3, 67 L.Ed. 100].) Shortly thereafter the rule was reaffirmed in Baird v. Monroe, supra, and the opinion of the court by Justice Angellotti distinguished Harper v. Rowe, 53 Cal. 233, on which the majority opinion relies, on the ground that “There the levy of the tax was invalid for want of any law authorizing it to be levied. ’ ’
It is contended that the alleged violation is a jurisdictional one because it prevented an effective transfer of title. If a defect prevents an effective transfer of title at the tax sale, title remains in the owner. If the defect does not prevent an effective transfer of title, the tax deed is valid and any discussion of curative acts becomes idle. (People v. Holliday, 25 Cal. 300, 305.) The foregoing contention would apply to any violation of a statutory requirement with respect to proceedings in tax sales and would serve to ban curative statutes entirely with respect to such proceedings. By assuming that noncompliance with a statutory requirement is jurisdictional even though the requirement is not essential to meet the mandates of the state or federal Constitution, this contention falls into the very error that Chase v. Trout, supra, sought to prevent. It is settled that the Legislature can validate conveyances between private persons that would otherwise be ineffective to transfer title because of noneompliance with statutory requirements. (Dentzel v. Waldie, 30 Cal. 138; Steger v. Traveling Men’s Bldg. & L. Assn., 208 Ill. 236 [70 N.E. 236, 100 Am.St.Rep. 225] ; and cases collected in 57 A.L.R. 1197.) There is no reason why a different rule should govern transactions in which the state is an interested party. (See Gordon v. City of San Diego, 101 Cal. 522 [36 P. 18, 40 Am.St.Rep. 73].)
There can be no question that the Legislature could have omitted at the outset any requirement as to a statement that the amount due includes penalties. The subject of the tax was clearly within the jurisdiction of the taxing authorities; there was an assessment of the property and ample opportunity for the equalization of the assessment; there was a levy of the tax and notice was given of the delinquency and of *792the sale of the property; and there were liberal provisions for the redemption of the property. Neither the majority opinion nor the briefs cite any act or omission in the entire proceedings from the assessment of the property to its sale by the state that would violate any constitutional provision or that could not have been previously authorized by the Legislature. The notices of sale to the state and of the subsequent sale by the state were more than sufficient to meet the requirements of due process of law. There is nothing in the due process clauses of either the state or federal Constitution requiring that such notices be given in a particular form or that a form once prescribed be adhered to meticulously. Certainly neither these nor any other constitutional provisions provide that the notices must contain a statement that the amount due includes “penalties.”
The majority opinion assumes that the mortgagor-owner had no rights that would prevent the application of the curative act but holds that since the plaintiff’s rights are based on his title by deed at the mortgage foreclosure sale, they intervened between the tax deed and the curative act and are therefore excepted from the rule of the foregoing eases. A mortgagee’s title, however, is no better than that of the owner, for the tax lien is at all times prior to the mortgage lien, and the mortgagee takes the property subject to the state’s claim for taxes. (Pol. Code, sec. 3716; California Loan & Trust Co. v. Weiss, 118 Cal. 489 [50 P. 697]; Williams v. Cooper, 124 Cal. 666 [57 P. 577]; German Savings & Loan Society v. Ramish, 138 Cal. 120 [69 P. 89, 70 P. 1067]; O’Dea v. Mitchell, 144 Cal. 374 [77 P. 1020]; Guinn v. McReynolds, 177 Cal. 230 [170 P. 421]; State v. Royal Consolidated Mining Co., 187 Cal. 343 [202 P. 133].) The mortgages were dated May 28, 1915, which was before the attachment of the lien for the 1916-1917 taxes but after the attachment of the lien for the 1911-1912 taxes. The tax liens were superior to all prior as well as all subsequent liens arising out of private contracts. (Ibid.) The tax deeds validated by the 1943 legislation are based upon the tax liens and are therefore superior to the claims not only of the former owners but of those deriving title therefrom, since the title of the mortgagee and of those claiming under him can be no better than that of his predecessors in interest. (San Francisco v. Lawton, 18 Cal. 465, 474 [79 Am. *793Dec. 187]; Branham v. Mayor and Council of San Jose, 24 Cal. 585, 604; Kreichbaum v. Melton, 49 Cal. 50, 54; Robinson v. Thornton, 102 Cal. 675, 680 [34 P. 120]; Hoppe v. Hoppe, 104 Cal. 94, 99 [37 P. 894]; Hodge v. Norton, 133 Cal. 99, 100 [65 P. 123]; Freelon v. Adrian, 161 Cal. 13 [118 P. 220]; White v. Rosenthal, 140 Cal.App. 184 [35 P.2d 154]; see 18 Cal.Jur. 613; Code Civ. Proc., sec. 700.)
Plaintiffs were not bona fide purchasers for value without notice of the tax liens and the proceedings for their enforcement, for they acquired the property subject to the tax liens (Pol. Code, sec. 3716; California Loan & Trust Co. v. Weiss, supra; Williams v. Cooper, supra; German Savings & Loan Society v. Ramish, supra; O’Dea v. Mitchell, supra; Guinn v. McReynolds, supra; State v. Royal Consolidated Mining Co., supra; see, also, District Bond Co. v. Pollack, 19 Cal.2d 304, 307-308 [121 P.2d 7] and cases there cited) and are charged with notice of the tax proceedings, which are matters of public record. (Reeve v. Kennedy, 43 Cal. 643, 654; Grant v. Cornell, 147 Cal. 565, 567 [82 P. 193, 109 Am.St. Rep. 173]; Newcomb v. City of Newport Beach, 7 Cal.2d 393, 406, 407 [60 P.2d 825]; In re Seick, 46 Cal.App. 363, 369 [189 P. 314].) It must be assumed that plaintiffs were aware of the technicality on which their grantor’s title depended. No reason appears why a person thus gambling on the possibility that a defect in the tax proceedings may have established his grantor’s title should not, like the grantor himself, be subject to the power of the state to correct the defect.
The intricacy of the tax laws makes it inevitable that proceedings in the levying and collecting of taxes should constantly fall short of perfection. If they succeed in accomplishing faithfully the objectives of the Legislature, it is captious to condemn them for failing to cross the T’s of a detail not essential to those objectives, and doubly so to reject a curative statute of the Legislature that would avert serious consequences of an inconsequential error in an otherwise correct notice. Insistence upon an impossible perfection can only lead to wholesale invalidation of tax titles in Los Angeles County where notices like that in the present case were used for many years. One may well ask to what end, since the needless discouragement of the purchase of property at tax sales only serves to keep such property off *794the tax rolls and to increase the tax burden on other property with the net effect of penalizing property owners who pay their taxes.
Gibson, O. J., and Edmonds, J., concurred.
Appellant’s and respondents’ petitions for a rehearing were denied April 18, 1944. Gibson, 0. J., Edmonds, J., and Tray-nor, J., voted for a rehearing.