L. W. Blinn Lumber Co. v. County of Los Angeles

PRESTON, J.

Appeal by plaintiff from judgment of nonsuit entered in an action to recover taxes paid by it under protest (see. 3819, Pol. Code) upon a possessory, or leasehold, interest in tide lands owned by the City of Los Angeles.

The complaint first alleged the creation of the leasehold interest, in substance as follows: .In 1907, as the result of the settlement and compromise of litigation between the City of Los Angeles and the Southern Pacific Railroad, the city leased certain tide lands to the railroad. In 1918 said railroad assigned to Consolidated Lumber Company, a corporation, all of its interest in and to a portion of said tide lands, which portion, comprising some 27.56 acres, more or less, the latter company leased to plaintiff in the year 1920, at an annual payment of $300 per acre for the first five years, increasing materially at the commencement of the second, third, fourth and fifth respective five-year periods thereafter, then to be at the rate of $600 per acre per annum for the balance of the term of the lease, extending to July 23, 1947.

The complaint further alleged that said rentals to be paid by plaintiff represented the full value of its occupancy and use of the premises; that, however, in 1925, the county assessor of Los Angeles County assessed its leasehold interest,

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denominated “Possessory interest in land under ordinance number 37036 N. S.”, upon a valuation of $210,840 and levied a tax thereon of $7,569.14 for said year; that plaintiff thereupon protested the assessment upon numerous grounds, claiming that said valuation was fixed in a purely arbitrary way, without reference to the true value of the leasehold interest itself as distinguished from the value of the fee title to the land, and that the tax was so excessively high and arbitrary as to amount to fraud. Plaintiff further alleged that it paid the tax under protest and petitioned for a hearing before the board of equalization, which hearing was duly had and evidence received and heard and that said board then sustained. the assessor’s valuation of said possessory right as being fair, equitable and not discriminatory, all to the injury of plaintiff for the various reasons set forth in its protest and in said pleading, wherefore plaintiff prayed judgment against defendants for the full amount of said tax so paid under protest, to wit: $7,569.14, together with interest, costs and other general relief. By a second count of the complaint plaintiff also sought to recover upon similar facts and like grounds, a tax in the sum of $323.10 paid by it under protest, pursuant to an assessment levied against its right to occupy, and maintain and operate a private wharf upon, certain other tide lands owned by the City of Los Angeles, adjoining and used with the previously mentioned tract, plaintiff’s interest therein being denominated “Possessory interest in land under order number 563, Parcel number 4. ’ ’