Dawson v. County of Los Angeles

CARTER, J.

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment entered after demurrer to his complaint had been sustained without leave to amend.

The action is one to recover a tax in the amount of $449.80 imposed on certain stocks owned by the plaintiff on the first Monday of March, 1935. Said tax was imposed under the provisions of section 3627a of the Political Code which then provided for the imposition of an

ad valorem

tax on intangible personal property. It is the plaintiff’s theory that the tax was unlawfully imposed and collected because of the enactment on June 13, 1935, of the Personal Income Tax Act (Stats. 1935, chap. 329) which tax concededly was substituted for and was to be in lieu of the former ad

valorem,

tax contemplated by section 3627a,

supra.

(See amendment of latter section, Stats. 1935, p. 2251.) In the case of

Weber

v.

Santa Barbara County,

L. A. No. 16106, this day filed,

{post,

p. 82 [98 Pac. (2d) 492]), we held that the

ad valorem

tax on intangible personal property imposed as of the first Monday of March, 1935, did not fall within the “in lieu” provision substituting the income tax therefor. For the reasons there advanced, we are of the view that the appellant’s contention in this particular lacks merit.

In addition to the foregoing contention, which has failed of its purpose to work a return of the entire tax, plaintiff advances a second contention which, if meritorious, would necessitate a refund of only a portion of the tax. This latter contention is addressed to the manner of the assessment of his stocks. Briefly, it is the plaintiff’s position that in the county of Los Angeles at all times pertinent to our inquiry real property was assessed at 50.2 per cent of its market or cash value while intangible personal property was assessed at 100 per cent of its market or cash value. As a result, plaintiff’s stocks were subject to an assessment 49.8 per cent greater than the assessment on real property. He contends, there