City of Pasadena v. County of Los Angeles

CARTER, J.

In two actions to recover taxes paid under protest by plaintiff city to defendant county, one for the fiscal year 1945-46, the other for the fiscal year 1946-47, defendant’s demurrers were overruled, and it failing to answer, judgments for plaintiff were entered.

[131]

The controversy involves the application of the constitutional provision reading: “All property in the state except as otherwise in this Constitution provided, not exempt under the laws of the United States, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law, or as hereinafter provided . . . provided, that property ... as may belong ... to any . . . municipal corporation . . . shall be exr empt from taxation, except such lands and the improvements thereon located outside of the . . . municipal corporation owning the same as were subject to taxation at the time of the acquisition of the same by said . . . municipal corporation; provided, that no improvements of any character whatever constructed by any . . . municipal corporation shall be subject to taxation. All lands or improvements thereon, belonging to any . . . municipal corporation, not exempt from taxation, shall be assessed by the assessor of the county ... in which said lands or improvements are located, and said assessment shall be subject to review, equalization and adjustment by the state board of equalization.” (Cal. Const., art. XIII, § D

Plaintiff pursued its administrative remedy (see

City & County of San Francisco

v.

County of San, Mateo,

36 Cal.2d 196 [222 P.2d 860]) and was denied relief by the State Board of Equalization.

The facts fitting the law as declared in the constitutional provision quoted are: That plaintiff owns property and improvements thereon consisting of a water system located outside its city limits, but within defendant county which were subject to taxation at the time of their acquisition; that defendant’s assessor assessed for taxation those improvements at $56,310 for the first year and at $51,640 for the second year; that certain of said improvements were constructed by plaintiff since acquisition of the property by it “to replace” improvements that were subject to taxation at the time of acquisition; that the assessor placed a value on the “replaced improvements” on the basis of the value thereof as they existed on the first Monday of March of the respective years, although the “replaced improvements” were larger and more substantially constructed, and of greater value than the improvements they replaced; and that they were constructed to serve a different purpose in that they were larger and would serve more parts of the water system.