City of Seattle v. Equitable Bond Co.

• Decision Date: 16 August 1923
• Docket Number: 17806.
• Citation: 126 Wash. 111,217 P. 721
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY OF SEATTLE v. EQUITABLE BOND CO.

217 P. 721

126 Wash. 111

CITY OF SEATTLE v. EQUITABLE BOND CO.

No. 17806.

Supreme Court of Washington

August 16, 1923

Department 2.

Appeal from Superior Court, King County; Mitchell Gilliam, Judge.

Suit by the City of Seattle against the Equitable Bond Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

John T Hunt, of Seattle, for appellant.

Thos J. L. Kennedy, Hugh R. Fullerton, and J. Ambler Newton, all of Seattle, for respondent.

PARKER J.

The plaintiff city commenced this action in the superior court for King county seeking foreclosure of delinquent local assessments levied by it against certain lots to aid in the payment of the cost of local street improvements. The defendant bond company was made a party defendant because it had become the purchaser from the treasurer of King county of certain general tax certificates of delinquency, the lien of which it claimed to be superior to the city's delinquent local assessment liens sought to be foreclosed. After the sustaining of the city's demurrer to the bond company's affirmative defense setting up its claim of superior lien under its general tax delinquent certificates and the bond company's election not to plead further and stand upon its denials and its affirmative defense, and after a trial upon the question of the validity of the city's local assessment liens, the trial court decreed foreclosure of the latter, holding them superior to the bond company's general tax liens evidenced by its certificates of delinquency, from which the bond company has appealed to this court.

In July, 1911, the local assessments here sought to be foreclosed by the city were duly levied and confirmed against the lots in question by an ordinance duly passed and approved by the city council and mayor. These assessments are past due and unpaid, and the city is still the holder thereof; none of them ever having been sold or transferred by the city by the issuance of certificates of delinquency or otherwise. In April 1918, and December, 1919, the bond company purchased from the treasurer of King county general tax certificates of delinquency, paying therefor the full amount of general taxes then due and unpaid and charged against the lots in question. No challenge is here made to the validity of the city's local assessments or the liens thereof against the lots in question, nor to the right of the city to foreclose such liens by this action, except as such claimed right on the part of the city may be impaired by the superiority of the bond company's general tax certificates of delinquency. No challenge is here made to the validity of the general taxes upon which the bond company's certificates of delinquency were issued, nor to the liens thereof against the lots in question, except as such liens may be impaired by the superiority of the city's local assessment liens here sought to be foreclosed.

The problem here presented is the same as the one presented and first discussed by us in the recent case of Seattle v. Everett, 215 P. 337. We there held, after a somewhat painstaking examination and review of our statutes touching the subject, that a private purchaser of a general tax certificate of delinquency does not thereby acquire a lien against the property described in such certificate superior to valid local assessment liens acquired by a city in the exercise of its power to levy local assessments and still held by such city, notwithstanding the lien of the general tax for which such certificate of delinquency is issued is, while held by the county for the state and its taxing districts, superior to all local assessment liens by whomsoever held. That decision, following those rendered by us in Holzman v. Spokane, 91 Wash. 418, 157 P. 1086 and Lawrence v. Tacoma, 103 Wash. 86, 173 P. 1017 was rested...