Rittersbacher v. Bd. of Supervisors of L.A. Cty.

SHENK, J.

The plaintiff above named is the owner of unimproved lot No. 22 in block 15, tract No. 8235, in Los Angeles County. By her petition filed in the superior court she sought a" writ of mandate to compel the defendants, board of supervisors, county auditor, county tax collector and county counsel to order and consent to the cancellation of the assessment for general county purposes levied against said lot by the county assessor for the year 1933. On July 17, 1933, through her agent, she filed with the board of supervisors, sitting as a board of equalization, her petition to have the valuation placed upon said property by the assessor reduced from $640 to $385. After a hearing her petition was denied on July 26, 1933. On September 19, 1933, she commenced this proceeding in the superior court to obtain the cancellation of said assessment “or such portion thereof as the court finds to be erroneous”.

Through the same agent eight other owners of real property, some of which was improved and some unimproved, filed separate petitions with said board of equalization to have the assessments on their several properties reduced to designated sums. These petitions were denied and the petitioners therein filed similar petitions in

mandamus

to compel the cancellation of said assessments, “or such portions thereof as the court finds to be erroneous”. To each petition for the writ a general demurrer was filed. Pursuant to a stipulation of the parties and an order of court all nine

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causes were consolidated and thereafter treated as one proceeding. The demurrers were sustained without leave to amend and a judgment of dismissal entered, whereupon an appeal was taken both from the order sustaining the demurrers and from the judgment of dismissal. The appeal from the order, which is nonappealable, is dismissed.

On the appeal from the judgment it is contended that the petition for the writ of

mandamus,

together with the exhibits attached thereto, shows that the uncontradicted evidence before the board of equalization, at the time the petitions for equalization were denied, proved that the assessor had wilfully adopted and deliberately pursued an erroneous and discriminatory and inequitable method of assessing different classes of property which resulted in excessively inequitable valuations of the property of the plaintiffs, and therefore that the peremptory writ should have been granted. In this connection it is claimed that the uncontradicted evidence before the board at the time the petitions for equalization were denied was that the assessor adopted a lower percentage in assessing certain classes of personal property than that applied to real estate and improvements, to the unlawful prejudice of and discrimination against the latter. That evidence, as produced by the agent of the several petitioners, was to the effect that, in passing the property in the county “in proportion to its value to be ascertained as provided by law”, as required by the Constitution (art. XIII, sec. 1), and by sections 3617 and 3627 of the Political Code, the assessor adopted fifty per cent of the value of real property and fifty per cent of the depreciated value of improvements thereon as the value of said property for the purpose of assessment; that in assessing merchandise the assessor adopted forty per cent of the " cost or market value, whichever is lower”; that forty per cent was applied to stocks of new automobiles, thirty per cent to fleets of automobiles in use, thirty per cent to store fixtures, forty per cent to office furniture and fixtures, thirty per cent to machinery and equipment and thirty per cent to used automobiles. After this evidence was produced by the petitioners the assessor requested and was accorded the right to reply at a later date. This reply was filed with the board, but not until after the board had denied the petitions. Therefore the plaintiffs herein contend that the defendants are bound,