Southwest Land Co. v. County of Los Angeles

CONREY, P. J.

Action to recover the sum of $1,46-7 paid under protest to satisfy a purported tax levy for the year 1915 against real property of the plaintiff. Judgment for plaintiff, from which the defendant appeals.

On the original tax-roll, duly verified by the assessor, the property was valued at $10,280, the tax thereon being stated amount, which was paid and is not included in the amount sued for in this action. On the twenty-second day.' of September, 1915, which was about two months after adjournment of the board of equalization, the county assessor of Los Angeles County filed an application with the board of supervisors requesting' permission to malee an addition to or change in the assessment-roll so as to change the assessment of said property, exclusive of improvements, from $10,280 to $100,280. This ■ application was in writing, approved by the district attorney, and recited that the reason for making said change was because of a clerical error occurring in entering the assessed value of the property in the assessor’s map-book. Pursuant to a hearing upon that application, the board of supervisors made an order purporting to authorize the assessor to make the proposed change in the assessment. Thereafter, pursuant to such

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order, the assessor added the sum of ninety thousand dollars valuation to the assessment-roll against said property, which authorization was filed in the office of the auditor of Los Angeles County. The additional tax thereafter paid by the plaintiff under protest is the amount sought to be recovered herein.

Section 3658 of the Political Code provides for maps and plat-books to be kept by the assessor, which are required to show the private lands owned or claimed in the county, and are required to be in forms prescribed by the state board of equalization. These books, are in form such that the right-hand page of the map-book shows a map of the land within certain arbitrary districts. The left-hand page contains data descriptive of the lands shown on the opposite page. This information is written in by the assessor and is the basis of the assessment-roll. In practice the valuations and descriptions of the assessment-roll are copied from the descriptive pages of the assessor’s map-book. In the assessor’s map-book, volume 205, while the same was in course of preparation for the year 1915, on pages 23, 24, and 25, there was placed a map according to a subdivision of the property which had been used in previous years, together with the appropriate descriptive matter. Thereafter the assessor’s attention was called to the fact that a new map of the land had been filed, showing it entirely as acreage. Thereupon the assessor made a new map on page 55 of the same book and noted on the page of the old map a reference to page 55 as follows: “For 1915 see pg. 55, Tr. No. 2783,” which was the number of the tract. The assessment as actually made is shown on page 55, where, under the head, “Value, 1915,” the valuation entry of $10,280 was placed by the assessor’s clerk and the assessment so made was included in the assessment-roll as verified by the assessor and approved by the board of equalization.