City of LA v. County of LA

9 Cal.2d 624 (1937) THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES (a Municipal Corporation), Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES (a Political Subdivision), Defendant and Appellant; LOS ANGELES RAILWAY CORPORATION (a Corporation), Respondent.

L. A. No. 14897. Supreme Court of California. In Bank.

September 30, 1937. Ray L. Chesebro, City Attorney, Frederick von Schrader, Assistant City Attorney, and G. Ellsworth Meyer and Bourke Jones, Deputies City Attorney, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Everett W. Mattoon, County Counsel, and J. H. O'Connor, Assistant County Counsel, for Defendant and Appellant.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Woodward M. Taylor for Respondent.

SHENK, J.

The City of Los Angeles sued the County of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Railway Corporation in eleven actions to recover amounts aggregating $99,820.49. That sum represents percentages paid by the railway corporation to the county from the years 1911 to 1930 pursuant to eleven franchises granted by the county to the railway corporation but which, by reason of the annexation to the [626] city of the territory over which the railway corporation operated should have been paid to the city. (San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Rys. v. County of Alameda, 66 Cal.App. 77 [225 P. 304].) Among other defenses, both defendants interposed the plea of the statute of limitations. The actions were consolidated for trial. The court dismissed the action as to the railway corporation and rendered judgment for the plaintiff against the county for the full amount of its claim. The county appealed from the whole of the judgment, and the city appealed from that portion of the judgment which dismissed the action as against the railway corporation.

Ten franchises were granted to the railway corporation between February 1, 1906, and October 22, 1909, and the eleventh in March, 1923. All were issued pursuant to the provisions of the Broughton Act. (Stats. 1905, p. 177.) Under the provisions of that act two per cent of the gross receipts derived by the corporation from operations under each franchise was payable by it, beginning the sixth year after issuance thereof. Annexation to the city of a portion or all of the territory described in each franchise occurred prior to the time the first payment became due. All but two of the franchises and the ordinances authorizing them contained the provision that whenever territory described therein should be included within any municipal corporation, all rights thereunder reserved to the county, except the right to the percentage of the gross receipts, should inure to the benefit of the municipality. After annexation the railway corporation continued to pay to the county the percentages due under the act and the franchises. No notice or demand to do otherwise was served on it until May 6, 1930, when for the first time the city demanded payment of all future percentages becoming due. In November, 1931, three days prior to the filing of the actions, the city demanded of the railway corporation an accounting and payment to the city of all percentages theretofore paid to the county under said franchises. The city filed its itemized claim with the county board of supervisors on June 25, 1930. It also filed an amended itemized claim showing payments of $99,820.49 by the railway corporation to the county to and including the year 1930. On the appeal by the county the only question is whether the trial court correctly decided that none of the