In Empire Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Bell (1997) 55 Cal.App.4th 1410, one of the parties asked the court of appeal "to take judicial notice of a declaration of a county official attesting that no notice was received" by the county. The court stated, "as this declaration does not qualify as an official act, it is not a proper item for judicial notice," and denied the request. (15 Empire Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Bell, supra, 55 Cal.App.4th 1410, 1424, footnote 26.) The declaration here suffers from the identical deficiency. Accordingly, the trial court erroneously took judicial notice of the State's declaration.