Midwick Country Club v. County of Los Angeles

SPENCE, J.

Plaintiff brought this action to recover taxes paid to defendant under protest which taxes were levied for the benefit of the Belvedere Fire Protection District organized under Statutes 1923, chapter 191. Judgment was entered in favor of defendant and from said judgment, plaintiff appeals.

Plaintiff states that the gist of the complaint is to the effect “that no benefit is or could be derived by the inclusion of its property in the Belvedere Fire Protection District”. The main allegation on this subject was as follows: “That plaintiff further alleges that the lands, and improvements thereon, of this plaintiff . . . were so far removed and distant from the section or country known as Belvedere and so isolated that this plaintiff could not in any way be benefited by the incorporation or organization of such district, nor could it receive fire protection from such district. ’ ’ The trial court found that said lands and improvements “were not so

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far removed or distant from the section or country known as Belvedere, nor were they so isolated that plaintiff could not be benefited by the incorporation or organization of such district; and it is not true that plaintiff could not receive fire protection from such district”. The trial court affirmatively found that plaintiff’s land and improvements were so located in the proximity of Belvedere “as to be particularly and specially benefited by the organization and incorporation of such district and ... as to be particularly and specially benefited by the fire protection afforded by such district”.

It is plaintiff’s contention that the foregoing findings are not supported by the evidence but we find no merit in this contention. There was ample evidence to show that fires had occurred in said district, some of them on plaintiff’s property, and that said district, including plaintiff’s property, was in need of fire protection. The uncontradicted evidence showed that a test run was made with the fire apparatus from the firehouse in the populous section of Belvedere to plaintiff’s property and that the time of said run including receipt of the telephone call was “a fraction over four minutes”. We are of the opinion that such evidence alone was sufficient to sustain the findings contrary to the material allegations of plaintiff’s complaint.