Cory

The plaintiff in this action sought and recovered judgment against the defendants quieting his title to 160 acres of land situate in the county of Fresno. The defendants’ answer denied all of the material allegations of the plaintiff’s complaint, and, cross-complaining, claimed title to the lands in dispute by adverse possession, and also under a purported tax sale and deed from the county tax collector to one R. M. Barthold, which was followed by a deed from the latter to the defendant Hotchkiss alleged to have been made and executed for the benefit of Hotchkiss and the defendant Canty. The trial court found that the tax sale which was the basis of the tax collector’s deed to Barthold r was invalid, for the reason that it was made for an amount in excess of that permitted by law. It is conceded that the evidence sustains this finding, and that, as a consequence, the tax deed did not, as further found by the trial court, convey any title to the land in dispute to Barthold or his purported successor in interest. It is claimed, however, that by reason of the purported deed from the tax collector to Barthold and the deed from him to the defendant Hotchkiss, the defendants had color…