Pasadena Hotel Development Venture v. City of Pasadena

Opinion

COBEY, J.

Plaintiff, Pasadena Hotel Development Venture (Holiday Inn) (hereafter taxpayer), appeals from a minute order in favor of defendant, City of Pasadena (hereafter City), denying taxpayer a refund of certain personal property taxes erroneously assessed by the City to the taxpayer. The basis for this denial is the asserted untimeliness of the taxpayer’s claim for refund.

The sole issue on this appeal is whether this refund claim should have been filed within the four-year period of limitation specified by Rev

[414]

enue and Taxation Code section 5097, subdivision (a)(2), or within the one-year period specified by the City charter and the applicable ordinance. We hold that the one-year period controls and that, therefore, the judgment of denial must be affirmed.

Facts

1

For its fiscal year 1976-1977 the City, pursuant to its applicable tax ordinances, assessed to the taxpayer certain business personal property and inventory situated at a particular location within the city. On the basis of this assessment the City levied taxes on this property for this fiscal year in the amount of $31,972.05, which taxes the taxpayer paid in full on August 27, 1976.

This assessment was excessive and erroneous because it included real property reported by the taxpayer. This error resulted in a tax overpayment by the taxpayer to the City of $25,034.25.

On May 23, 1979, the taxpayer, purportedly following the procedure specified in the already-mentioned Revenue and Taxation Code section 5097, filed a written verified claim for refund of its tax overpayment with the city clerk. The City rejected this claim completely on June 6, 1979.

The City assessed the taxes at issue on its unsecured property tax roll for the fiscal year in question and the City alone handled the taxpayer’s claim for refund.

Discussion

Government Code section 935