Napa Savings Bank v. County of Napa

BURNETT, J.

The only question for determination is whether the complaint states facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, the appeal being from a judgment entered by default against the. defendant for failure to answer after its demurrer had been overruled.

After a suitable allegation of the corporate capacity of plaintiff and of defendant, it appears: “That on the first Monday in March, 1909, at 12 o ’clock meridian, plaintiff was engaged in the business of a savings and loan corporation, viz., in the savings bank business, at Napa, California, and had a capital of $25,000, a surplus of $6,500 and savings deposits in the sum of $279,741.23; and at said time and on said date the plaintiff had and owned the following property, viz., real estate, assessed at the sum of $640; money on hand assessed at $1,540; solvent credits, not secured by mortgage or trust deeds, assessed at $40,910.28; promissory notes secured by mortgage or trust deeds on real estate, assessed at $164,426.53; and money (including capital and surplus) and savings deposits invested in quasi-public corporation bonds of the state (incorporated and organized under the laws of the state of California, and having their respective places of business in this state) in the sum of $89,825, and money (including capital and surplus) and savings deposits invested in the city of Stockton (California) municipal bonds in the sum of $4,395.50, and at the time aforesaid the plaintiff neither had nor owned any property other than the said prop

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erty above stated; that the said capital, surplus and savings deposits were intermingled and used as a whole, and invested in the property and loans above stated, and that all of plaintiff’s said property had been assessed for the purpose of taxation for the fiscal year 1909-10, long prior to the time of the assessment herein complained -of and contested.

“That on the thirtieth day of July, 1909, the board of equalization made an order directing the assessor of Napa county to assess to plaintiff the money and savings deposits invested in the said bonds aforesaid as credits, and on said day the said assessor did enter said assessment upon the assessment-roll and assessed the same at the sum of ten dollars and no more.

“That said board of equalization was in session from the first Monday in July, 190-9, and for the term of twenty days thereafter, under an extension of twenty days granted to it by the state board of equalization, and on the eighth day of August, 1909, the said extension of twenty days expired, and that said board of equalization thereupon ceased to exist, and had no right or authority to sit as such board after the said eighth day of August, 1909. That on the second day of September, 1909, the said board of supervisors of the county of Napa met as a pretended or assumed board of equalization and raised the said assessment of ten dollars, made by the assessor as aforesaid, from ten dollars to the sum of $94,184.50, thereby assessing the said money and savings deposits so invested in said bonds, which were so invested on the first Monday in March, 1909, and had been so invested for a long time prior thereto.”