National Tax & Mortg. Co. v. Cartwright

• Decision Date: 23 November 1931
• Docket Number: 12552.
• Citation: 90 Colo. 16,5 P.2d 878
• Parties: NATIONAL TAX & MORTGAGE CO. v. CARTWRIGHT, County Treasurer.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

5 P.2d 878

90 Colo. 16

NATIONAL TAX & MORTGAGE CO. v. CARTWRIGHT, County Treasurer.

No. 12552.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

November 23, 1931

Error to District Court, Arapahoe County; S.W. Johnson, Judge.

Action by the National Tax & Mortgage Company against Claude Cartwright, as Treasurer of Arapahoe County. Judgment was entered dismissing the action, and plaintiff brings error.

Reversed and remanded.

George H. Lerg and George A. Chase, both of Denver, for plaintiff in error.

Flor Ashbaugh, of Littleton, for defendant in error.

MOORE J.

The National Tax & Mortgage Company, plaintiff in error, sought a writ of mandamus in the district court to compel the issuance of a treasurer's deed for lands located in Arapahoe county based upon a tax certificate thereon. The district court found that the plaintiff in error had no title to said tax certificate and dismissed the action, a review of which is here sought.

The tax certificate in question, together with others not here involved, were issued to and held by the old county of Arapahoe prior to the adoption of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution of the State of Colorado creating the city and county of Denver, and after the adoption of said amendment were transferred by the county commissioners of the city and county of Denver to one J. A. Breen, who sold and assigned them to the plaintiff in error.

These certificates were presented to defendant in error treasurer's deeds demanded and refused, whereupon this and other suits of a similar character were instituted.

Two questions are presented:

1. Did the plaintiff in error have title to said certificate?

2. Was the defendant in error the proper official to execute a deed thereon?

1. The regularity of the transfers of said certificate by the county commissioners of the city and county of Denver to Breen and by Breen to plaintiff in error is not questioned. Therefore if the title to said certificate at the time of said transfer to Breen was in the city and county of Denver, plaintiff now has title thereto.

The determination of whether the city and county of Denver had such title involves the construction of the following pertinent provisions of the Twentieth Amendment: 'The municipal corporation known as the city of Denver, and all municipal corporations and that part of the quasi-municipal corporation known as the county of Arapahoe, in the state of Colorado, included within the exterior boundaries of the said city of Denver as the same shall be bounded when this amendment takes effect, are hereby consolidated and are hereby declared to be a single body politic and corporate, by the name of the 'City and County of Denver.' By that name said corporation shall have perpetual succession, and shall own, possess and hold all property, real and personal theretofore owned, possessed or held by the said city...