Nadon

Defendants City of Los Angeles and its treasurer appeal from a judgment awarding damages for loss of property in a sale foreclosing an improvement bond. We reverse the judgment.

In 1967 plaintiffs became the owners of a tract of land located in the City of Los Angeles and duly recorded their deeds on December 4, 1967. They paid one installment of taxes for the year 1967-1968, but otherwise did not pay property taxes. In 1970, pursuant to a demand from the holder of a bond issued for an assessment made on the property under the Improvement Act of 1911, the treasurer issued a notice of foreclosure, addressed to the owners as shown on the assessment rolls of the county tax assessor, at the addresses shown on such rolls. Those rolls did not reflect that the owners there shown were not the plaintiffs. The treasurer did not search the records in the recorder’s office and had no notice of plaintiffs’ actual ownership. No notices were ever served on plaintiffs. Thereafter, the usual course of foreclosure and sale took place, resulting in the ultimate issuance, on November 26, 1971, of a treasurer’s deed to Arthur E. Wennstrom, who duly recorded that deed on December 1, 1971.

On…