Court Opinion

ID: 9791050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:04:21.713603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:33.614384
License: Public Domain

*681TRAYNOR, J.
I dissent.
Had the property remained in the hands of the owner-mortgagor until the effective date of the Curative Act of 1943, the deed to the state would unquestionably have been validated by that act. (Miller v. McKenna, 23 Cal.2d 774, 781-782 [147 P.2d 531], and cases there cited.) Under the majority opinion, however, the rights of plaintiffs and their immediate predecessor in interest, whether or not they had actual or constructive notice of the claims of the state, are greater than those of the owner-mortgagor, even though they took title to the land subject to the prior claims of the state for the delinquent taxes.
The question whether plaintiffs or their predecessor are bona fide purchasers is not considered in the majority opinion or in Miller v. McKenna, supra, upon which it relies, although the rule relied upon is designed solely for the protection of innocent third persons. (McFaddin v. Evans-Snider-Buel Co., 185 U.S. 505, 510-511 [22 S.Ct. 758, 46 L.Ed. 1012]; United States Mortgage Co. v. Gross, 93 Ill. 483, 494, aff’d, 108 U.S. 477 [2 S.Ct. 940, 27 L.Ed. 795]; see 16 Am.Jur. 449.) The foreclosure deed to the California Bank was executed after the taxes had been delinquent for nearly five years. Plaintiff did not even show that the California Bank acquired the foreclosure deed without actual notice of the claim of the state for taxes, which was a matter of public record. The plaintiffs themselves acquired whatever rights the California Bank had in the property after the deed to the state had been recorded, and there is no showing that they acquired that interest without actual notice of the claims of the state.
Under established principles of law plaintiffs could have no rights against the state superior to that of their predecessors in interest. The court in this case and in the Miller case creates for plaintiffs a vested right in the minor defects in the tax deed to the state. I can find no basis in reason or authority for the creation of this right and must therefore dissent for the reasons set forth in my dissenting opinion in Miller v. McKenna, supra, 23 Cal.2d 774, 792.
Edmonds, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petition for a rehearing was denied May 20, 1948. Traynor, J., voted for a rehearing.