Delinquent taxes, collection of. Former levies con firmed. Suits for recovery of delinquent taxes. CHAP. DXLV.-An Act to provide for the collection of delinquent taxes for the twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth fiscal years, in the City and County of San Francisco. [Approved April 1, 1876.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The assessment of taxes upon all property, both real and personal (except upon solvent debts), in the City and County of San Francisco, whether for State or city and county purposes, for the twenty-fourth fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and for the twenty-fifth fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, and for the twenty-sixth fiscal year ending June thirtieth eighteen hundred and seventyfive, as equalized by the Board of Supervisors of said city and county, sitting as a Board of Equalization, in said fiscal years, are hereby legalized and confirmed and rendered valid and binding, both in law and equity, against the persons and property assessed, and the duplicate assessment rolls of said city and county for said fiscal years shall be prima facie evidence of such assessments. SEC. 2. The levy made by said Board of Supervisors for the twenty-fourth fiscal year ending on the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, also the levy made by said Board for the twenty-fifth fiscal year ending on the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, also the levy made by said Board for the twenty-sixth fiscal year ending on the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, are each hereby made valid and binding, effectual and legal, and each of said levies are hereby made valid, ratified, confirmed, and adopted, and all the acts of the Assessor, Board of Supervisors, Auditor, or of other officers of said city and county, in assessing and equalizing, or in preparing original or duplicate assessment rolls, are hereby made valid, binding, and legal for all purposes affecting the assessment, equalization, and levy of taxes for each of said fiscal years. SEC. 3. Order Number Eleven Hundred and Eighty-five of the Board of Supervisors of said city and county, and the employment of special counsel pursuant to the requirements of said order, and each and every of the suits commenced by said special counsel, are hereby authorized, made valid, ratified, and confirmed; and said special counsel is hereby authorized and directed to prosecute said suits commenced by him to recover delinquent taxes and now pending in the Third District Court, and to commence such other suits in the name of said city and county as may be necessary to recover said city and county's portion of all delinquent taxes for said twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth fiscal years; provided, that all suits to recover any taxes paid under protest for said twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth fiscal years, hereafter to be brought, shall be commenced and prosecuted by the City and County Attorney of said city and county. recovery of SEC. 4. The Board of Supervisors of said city and county Suits for is hereby authorized to employ special counsel to commence delinquent civil actions in the name of the City and County of San taxes. Francisco, in any of the District Courts of said city and county, whether the defendant be a resident of said city and county or not, and to take any proceedings under the existing laws to recover the unpaid taxes assessed for municipal purposes of said city and county for the twenty-sixth fiscal year, other than the taxes covered by the proviso in the preceding section. SEC. 5. In any suit hereafter to be commenced for the Same. collection of delinquent taxes due said city and county, the complaint may be in the following form, and shall be held to be legally sufficient, and upon the trial the duplicate assessment roll shall be prima facie evidence of plaintiff's right to recover, and as against all defenses, except those hereinafter enumerated, shall be conclusive evidence of such right: (Title of Court.) The City and County of San Francisco vs. (naming the defendant). Plaintiff avers, that the defendant is indebted to plaintiff in the sum of $, for city and county taxes, which said taxes were duly assessed and levied upon the following described property (describing the property) for the fiscal year, with five per cent. penalty added thereto, for the non-payment of such taxes, and two per cent. per month interest from the day of, A. D. 187-, together with $ costs of advertising and costs of suit. Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment for said several sums and costs of suit. (Signed by plaintiff's attorney.) $ defendant. SEC. 6. The defendant shall not be allowed to set up in Plea of his answer, or show any irregularity or informality in the levy or assessment as a defense, but shall only be allowed to plead: First-That the taxes have been paid before suit; or, Second-That he had not the property mentioned in the complaint, and had no assessable interest therein at the time of the assessment; and no answer shall be filed in any such case unless the same be verified by oath. SEC. 7. Whenever any money is collected under the pro- Moneys, visions of this Act, except as hereinafter provided, it shall how paid. be paid to the Tax Collector of the City and County of San Francisco, and shall be by him accounted for to the Treasurer of said city and county. SEC. 8. For services, under the provisions of this Act, Counsel the special counsel employed by the Board of Supervisors fees, etc. shall be entitled to receive and retain to his own use ten per cent. of all moneys collected under the provisions of this Act, and all officers shall perform such services as may be required of them under this Act without the payment of fees in advance, but they may charge and receive to the use of said city and county such fees as are allowed for similar services in other cases; provided, such fees are collected of the defendant, and in no case shall the city and county be liable for any services rendered under this Act. Law Unknown owners, summons to. SEC. 9. The provisions of an Act entitled "An Act [to] provide for the increasing the law library of the corporation known as the San Francisco Law Library, and to secure the use of the same to the Courts held at San Francisco, the bar, the city and county government, and the people of the City and County of San Francisco," and all Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, shall not apply to proceedings under this Act; but the fees to which said San Francisco Law Library is entitled by law shall be taxed as other costs of suits, and when collected from the defendant, to be paid to the Treasurer of said library. SEC. 10. If the name of the owner of any real estate, upon which the taxes remain unpaid, be unknown, or if the same has been assessed to an unknown owner, or to a person not the owner, the person or persons owning such real estate may be sued by any name, and the summons may be served in the following manner: First-Where the owner is known, in the manner prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure. Second-Where the owner is unknown, but the land is occupied, by leaving a copy of the summons with the occupants thereof. Third-Where the owner is unknown and the land unoccupied, by posting a copy of summons upon the lot. At the expiration of twenty days, service of summons shall be deemed complete; and, if no answer be on file, a judgment and decree of foreclosure by default may be taken. In actions to recover taxes upon real estate, each and every judgment and decree obtained under the provisions of this Act shall have the force and effect of and be a lien upon the specific real estate upon which such taxes were levied, which said lien shall not be discharged, except upon the payment of such judgment or sale of said real estate under a decree of foreclosure. SEC. 11. All Acts and parts of Acts, so far as they are in conflict with the provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed. Corporate name. CHAP. DXLVI.-An Act to incorporate the Town of Martinez, and to provide for the government thereof. [Approved April 1, 1876.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The Town of Martinez, and the inhabitants thereof, shall hereafter be a body politic and corporate, for the purposes designated in this Act only, under the name and style of the "Town of Martinez," and by that name the Trustees thereof shall have succession in office, and may sue and be sued in all the Courts, to enforce the provisions of this Act. SEC. 2. The corporate limits of the Town of Martinez Corporate shall be as follows, viz: Beginning at a point where the limits. fence dividing the lands of J. P. Jones and L. I. Fish touches the Straits of Carquinez, thence southwardly along said fence and continuing the same course to the line of the homestead tract of II. Bush; thence westwardly along the north line of Bush's homestead tract to the Arroyo del Hombre; thence southwardly along said arroyo to the center of G Street; thence westwardly along G Street to the western boundary of the Town of Martinez as officially surveyed; thence northwardly, following the western boundary of the town plat, to the Straits of Carquinez; thence eastwardly along the shore of the Straits of Carquinez, following the northerly line of the Pinolo and Las Juntas Ranches, to the place of beginning. ment, how vested. SEC. 3. The corporate powers and duties of the Town of GovernMartinez shall be vested in a Board of Trustees, to consist of three members, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the town on the first Monday in May in each year, and shall hold their office for the term of one year and until their successors are elected and qualified. SEC. 4. The Board of Trustees shall assemble on the first Trustees to Monday of the month succeeding their election, and shall organize, take and subscribe to an oath of office, and shall organize by choosing one of their number as President and another as Clerk, and shall, by ordinance, fix the time of holding their stated meetings, and also provide for calling special meetings, as business shall require. SEC. 5. When a vacancy occurs in the Board from any Vacancies. cause, a special election shall be holden at a time to be fixed by the Board of Trustees, to fill such vacancy. At all meetings, a majority of the Trustees shall constitute a quorum to transact business. Trustees. SEC. 6. The Board of Trustees shall judge of the election Powers of returns and qualifications of their members, and determine contested elections of all town officers. They may establish rules for their own proceedings, punish any member or other person for disorderly behavior in their presence, while transacting official business at their meetings. They shall keep a journal of their proceedings, and, at the desire of any member, shall cause the yeas and nays to be taken on any question and entered on their journal. All their proceedings shall [be] public. The style of all ordinances shall be: The Trustees of the Town of Martinez do ordain as follows. SEC. 7. The Board of Trustees shall have power to make same. such by-laws or ordinances, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, as they may deem necessary to preserve order; to prevent and remove all nuisances which shall be detrimental to health and comfort; to prevent horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, or goats, from running at large in the streets, or upon the public grounds in said town; and to punish the violation of any ordinance passed, pursuant to this section, by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars. SEC. 8. The Board of Trustees shall also have power to Same. Street grading, etc. Hearing of petitions. Board maу declare any of the streets now open, or which may be opened by the owner or owners of land in said town, to be public streets, and to keep the same open, and to remove all obstructions therefrom, and to cause the streets fronting on any block to be resurveyed and located, as near as practicable, as it was originally located, upon the petition of the owners of one-half or more of the land fronting on said street in said block; to establish the grades of streets and sidewalks; and to provide for grading streets, and for building sidewalks and street-crossings, and for keeping the streets, street-crossings, and sidewalks in repair, as provided in this Act; also, for planting shade-trees upon the streets. and for the preservation thereof. SEC. 9. If at any time the owners of one-half or more of the land fronting on any street in the town, between any two given points on said street, shall present to the Board of Trustees a petition, asking that such street be graded, repaired, or crossings or sidewalks thereon be constructed, and therein describing generally the nature of the work proposed to be done, with an estimate of its cost and the names of the owners of land on such streets to be charged with the expense of such work, it shall be the duty of the President of the Board of Trustees to call a special meeting of the Board of Trustees to consider such petition, at a time not less than five days nor more than ten days after the presentation thereof. Notice of such meetings shall be given by written or printed notices, signed by the President of the Board, stating the time and place of such meeting, and generally the object of the meeting. Such notice shall be posted in at least three public places in said town, for a period of not less than five days before the time of such meeting. SEC. 10. At such meeting it shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to hear the allegations of the petitioners in support of the petition, and any objection which may be made by the owners of land which will be charged with a portion of the expense of the proposed work, and the Board of Trustees shall thereupon settle and adopt specifications for the proposed work, if it shall be determined by them to cause the proposed work to be done. SEC. 11. If the petition be for the construction of a sideorder work. walk on one side of a street, and it shall appear that the owners of one-half or more of the land fronting on said street, on the side thereof where it is proposed to construct such sidewalk, shall have petitioned therefor, it shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to make an order directing such sidewalk to be constructed; and if the petition be for the grading or repairs of a street, or building crossings thereon, or for the construction of sidewalks on both sides thereof, and it shall appear that the owners of one-half or more of the land fronting on both sides of the street where such work is proposed to be done, or such sidewalks or street-crossings are proposed to be constructed, shall have signed such petition or have consented thereto, it shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to make an order directing that such work be done, |