Saladino

When a bond was sold by a city in 1991 to raise money for street and sewer improvements, a recorded lien attached to a parcel of property. The owner of the property used it as security for a loan in February 2002 but failed to pay either the property taxes owed to the county or the assessments due to the city for the improvements, and the property was ultimately sold by the county for more than the amount due for taxes. Claims to the excess proceeds were made by the current owner of the bond and by the lender, and the bond owner ultimately filed a petition for a writ of mandate. The trial court ruled in favor of the lender, and the bond owner appeals. We reverse, finding that (notwithstanding a change in the bond’s ownership) the bond owner is a “lienholder[] of record prior to the recordation of the tax deed” with priority over the lender’s subsequently recorded deed of trust. (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 4675, subd. (e)(1).)

FACTS

A.

In November 1989, the City of Glendale adopted a resolution calling for the construction of street and sewer improvements on Marion Drive, the creation of a special assessment district to levy special assessments against the benefited…