City of Los Angeles v. Southern Pacific Railroad

Searls, C. This action was brought to recover $1,220 alleged to be due for license tax. Plaintiff had judgment. Appellant does not here challenge the authority of plaintiff to provide by ordinance for the collection of a license tax upon business and occupations carried on within the corporate limits of the city of Los Angeles, including such license tax, “for every steam railroad company having depot in said city.”

The validity of the ordinance upon which this action is founded was passed upon in the case of City of Los Angeles v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 61 Cal. 59.

The points made here, and which, it is claimed, were not involved in the case quoted above, are: —

1. That by virtue of an ordinance of the city of Los Angeles, approved October 24, 1872, an ordinance of the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County, and an agreement of defendant therein referred to, and certain other ordinances relating to the same subject-matter, a contract between the parties, plaintiff and defendant, was created, by the express terms of which it became the duty and right of defendant to establish its depot, and to maintain and operate its railroad in and through the city, and that the subsequent deed and ordinances of the city relating thereto constituted an express grant to the defendant of the right to maintain its depot and operate its road without any further license from the city.

2. That the ordinance imposing a license upon the defendant is in contravention of the terms of this contract, and impairs its obligation, and is therefore void as against defendant.

[435]From a review of the findings of the court below, and of the evidence upon which those findings are based, we conclude the city of Los Angeles and the county of Los Angeles were alike desirous that the defendant corporation should construct its railroad through the county, and locate its depot and shops within the city limits, and that as an inducement thereto they and each of them were willing to make, and did make concessions in the way of bonds and stock, and that the plaintiff granted certain lands needed by the corporation defendant, and granted to it free “any and all right of way which said Southern Pacific Eailroad Company may require in entering, passing through and leaving the said city with the main trunk line, be secured to them free of any claim for damages or other compensation.”