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131 Cal. 109

63 P 179

McPike v. Heaton

California Supreme Court

Decided December 27, 1900

California Supreme Court · decided 1900-12-27

<p>Deed of Grant—Implied Covenant Against Taxes.—The covenant against encumbrances implied from a deed of grant embraces taxes levied for the fiscal year succeeding the date of the grant, which were a lien upon the land as of the first Monday of March preceding the date of the grant.</p> <p>Id.—Personal Covenant—Action by Succeeding Grantee.—The covenant implied against the encumbrance of such taxes is a personal covenant, as would be any covenant against encumbrances, express or implied, which does not run with the land, or pass to an assignee or succeeding grantee. A succeeding grantee who has paid the taxes cannot maintain an action against the first grantor upon the covenant implied from his deed of grant.</p> <p>Id.—Personal Liability of Owner of Land—Remedy Against Land. There is no personal liability of the owner of land to pay the taxes levied and made a lien thereupon; and the payment of such taxes can be enforced only by a sale of the land in the mode prescribed by statute.</p> <p>Appeal—Death of Appellant After Submission—Reversal—Nunc Pro Tunc.—Where the appellant dies after the submission of the appeal and the judgment is reversed, the judgment of reversal will be entered mine pro tuno as of a date prior to the death.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1900-12-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently January 2001

13 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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GAROUTTE, J., concurring.

¶1 At the oral argument of this cause I was impressed with the soundness of respondents’ posi *112 tion, but upon further consideration my opinion has undergone a change. Respondents say: “Suppose Heaton’s deed to Jackson had been a mere quitclaim instead of a bargain and ' sale, would Jackson’s right of recovery, if he had continued to be the owner on the date of the delinquency of the tax, and had then paid it, been lessened in the least?” I am satisfied ani affirmative answer to this question must be returned. In the absence of some covenant from Heaton, Jackson, under a quitclaim deed, would take the land just as it was, regardless of the nature of the title, or the number or character of liens resting upon it. If the lien upon the laud had been a judgment or mortgage lien, and Heaton had given Jackson a quitclaim deed, Jackson would have had no claim against Heaton; and the fact that the lien here was one for taxes, rather than that of a mortgage, judgment, or attachment lien, cannot affect the principle involved. It seems to he conceded by respondents that they are in no better position than Jackson would he under a quitclaim deed from Heaton. And as we have seen, Jackson, under those circumstances, would have no recourse against Heaton for liens resting upon the land at the time Heaton gave his quitclaim deed.

¶2 I concur in the views expressed by Mr. Justice Harrison, and also in the judgment of reversal.

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