Cavanaugh

This is an action for the recovery of real estate. The defendant set up title by adverse possession, and his claim was held to be well founded by the trial court. The sole question arising upon this appeal rests upon the construction of that provision of the statute which declares that, before the plaintiff can be deprived of his title by an adverse occupation, the party in possession must “ pay all the taxes, state, county, or municipal, which have been levied and assessed upon such lands.” Defendant’s occupation dates from 1881, and the court found as a fact that the laud in controversy was assessed to him, and the taxes thereon paid by him every year from the date of his occupation down to and including the year 1887. The court also found that the same land was assessed to plaintiff for the years 1885, 1886, and 1887, and the taxes paid by him for those years.

As an element entering into the creation of defendant’s title* the payment of all taxes levied upon the land during the five years’ term of occupation is neeoseary, but it was never infended by the law-making power that he's’nould pay the taxes for any *674 stated year more than once. Having had the land assessed to him,…

State and county taxes can be assessed upon the same property but once for the same fiscal year. “Nothing in this code shall be construed to require or permit double taxation.” (Pol. Code, sec. 3607.) The assessment which forms the basis of the taxes must be upon the property, and the assessor “must assess such property to the persons by whom it was owned or claimed, or in whose possession or control it was at twelve o’clock m. of the first Monday of March next preceding; but no mistake in the name of the owner or supposed owner of real property shall render the assessment thereof invalid.” (Sec. 3628.) There is no authority for making more than one assessment upon the same parcel of land, even though different claimants may return it to the assessor in their lists. “Lands once described on the assessment-book need not be described a second time, but any person claiming the same, and desiring to be assessed therefor, may have his name inserted with that of the person to whom such land is assessed.” (Sec. 3657.)

When the taxes upon a parcel of land have been once paid the burden is removed, and there no longer remains any tax to be paid. Such payment may be made by any person…