SAN FRANCISCO BOYS'CLUB v. County of Mendocino

SIMS, J.

Defendants, the County of Mendocino and various public officials of that county, who were sued in their official capacity, have appealed from a judgment entered in four consolidated actions in which plaintiff, San Francisco Boys’ Club, Inc., sought and was awarded a refund of real property taxes paid under protest on assessments made for the fiscal years 1962-1963, 1963-1964, 1964-1965 and 1965-1966. The trial court upheld the taxpayer’s claim that the property in question was exempt from taxation under the provisions of section lc of article XIII of the California Constitution and section 214 of the Bevenue and Taxation Code.

Defendants contend that the taxpayer was not entitled to an exemption, and the resulting refund, because its entire property was not exclusively used for an exempt purpose as required by the constitutional and statutory provisions. As a corollary, they urge that the trial court erred in failing to expressly find, as a matter of fact, whether the property had been exclusively used for charitable purposes. Beview reveals that the trial court properly concluded that the taxpayer was entitled to the exemption, and that the defendants cannot complain of the failure to find on the issue presented by them because it is a mixed question of fact and law, and, in any event, could only be resolved adversely to defendants in the light of the facts expressly found by the trial court.

The facts before this court are set forth in an agreed statement (Cal. Buies of Court, rule 6a) which in turn adopts and supplements substantially all of the facts found by the trial court. They may be summarized as follows:

The San Francisco Boys’ Club is a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the State of California, and operated exclusively for charitable purposes. Its articles of incorporation, indicate the purpose of the club, generally, is to promote the well-being of boys of San Francisco; that it is not organized and operated for profit and that no part of its net earnings accrue to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. The corporation has no shareholders; it is a membership corporation. Article XVII further provides that

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in the event of liquidation, dissolution or abandonment, the corporation’s property “will not inure to the benefit of any private person, but shall be distributed to a fund, foundation or corporation organized and operated for charitable purposes. ’ ’