County of Los Angeles v. Craig

SPENCE, J.

Plaintiff sought by this action to recover personal property taxes alleged to have become due during the years 1932 and 1933 upon a vessel known as the “Mazatlan”. By way of defense, it was alleged that said vessel was exempt as it was a vessel of more than fifty tons burden and was at all times registered at a port in this state and engaged in the transportation of freight and passengers. The court found in accordance with defendants’ allegations relating to the claim of exemption and entered its judgment in favor of defendants. Plaintiff appeals from said judgment.

Section 4 of article XIII of the Constitution provides, “All vessels of more than fifty (50) tons burden registered at any port in this state and engaged in the transportation of freight or passengers, shall be exempt from taxation except for state purposes ...”

It is conceded that the “Mazatlan” was a vessel of approximately eight hundred tons burden but plaintiff contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the findings that said vessel was ‘ ‘ registered at a port in the state of California and engaged in the transportation of freight and passengers”. There was no conflict in the evidence and the problem presented is whether the uncontroverted facts bring said vessel within the meaning of the provisions of the above-mentioned section of the Constitution.

The first question relates to the meaning of the word “registered” as used in said constitutional section. In Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, the verb

[60]

“register” is defined as “To record formally and exactly; to enroll; to enter precisely in a list or the like.” (See, also, 53 C. J. 1067.) It thus appears that the word “registered”, when used in its ordinary and popular sense, includes within its meaning “enrolled”. It further appears that the word “registered” was used in its ordinary and popular sense in our code sections in force at the time of the adoption of the above-mentioned constitutional section in the year 1914 and for many years prior thereto. Section 3644 of the Political Code then read, “All vessels, except ferryboats, which may be registered, of every class which are by law required to be registered, must be assessed, and the taxes thereon paid, only in the county, or city and county, where the same are registered, enrolled, or licensed.” It seems plain from the reading of said code section that the word “registered”, appearing twice .in the first portion thereof, was there meant to include all vessels “registered” at the custom house under what was technically known as registry, enrollment or license. This is made more obvious by a reading of sections 3645 and 3646 of the Political Code as said sections then read, the last-mentioned section relating to “All boats and small craft not required to be registered ...” It further appears that the use of the word “registered”, in its ordinary and popular sense, was carried into certain subsequent amendments of said section 3644 and into certain subsequent headnotes of said sections 3644, 3645 and 3646, the first two sections carrying the headnote “Assessment of registered vessels” and the last section carrying the headnote “Nonregistered boats”. (See Deering’s Pol. Code, 1931 ed.)