California Employment Stabilization Commission v. Chichester Transportation Co.

WARD, J. The defendant appeals from a judgment in an action to recover unemployment insurance taxes. The trial court concluded “That the plaintiff is entitled to judgment against said defendant in the sum of One Thousand Six Hundred Fifty-Four and 34/100ths Dollars ($1654.34) as and for contributions for the period from January 1, 1936 to December 31,1942, together with penalty in the sum of Sixty-one Dollars ($61.00) and interest to February 28, 1945, in the sum of One Thousand Seventy-six and 38/100ths Dollars ($1076.38) plus interest from February 28, 1945, to date of judgment herein at the rate of one-half per cent per month or fraction thereof computed on such contributions of One Thousand Six Hundred Fifty-four and 34/100ths Dollars ($1654.34) together with plaintiff’s cost of suit in the amount of Six and 25/100ths Dollars ($6.25).” (Italics added.) The plaintiff is the California Employment Stabilization Commission, successor to the California Employment Commission (formerly Unemployment Reserves Commission).

The primary question involved on this appeal concerns the effect of section 45.2 of the California Unemployment Insurance Act as added by chapter 630, Statutes of 1939 [Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1939 Supp., Act 8780d], and the effect of the amendment of said section by Statutes of 1943, chapter 1114 [3 Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 8780d]. The defense to the action is based upon the provisions of section 338, subdivision 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which in substance sets forth a three-year statute of limitations on a liability created by statute other than a penalty or forfeiture. This action was filed February 28, 1944, and the commission relies on section 45.2 of the Unemployment Insurance Act as it was en[901]acted in 1939 to support the judgment. The appellant taxpayer relies on section 45.2 as amended in 1943, effective August 4, 1943, to defeat the judgment. The Legislature " in 1945 repealed the entire section. As amended in 1943 the section read: “No statute of this State shall limit the time within which the commission may enforce the payment of contributions by civil action or any other remedy provided by this act if by reason of any intent to evade the provisions of this act no contribution report or an erroneous return has been filed.” (Italics added.) By the amendment in 1943 the italicized portions were added to the section as it read in 1939. It is apparently admitted by the commission that they did not prove an intent to evade the act.

The 1943 amendment further provided that the above italicized portion “is hereby declared to be merely a clarification of the original intention of the Legislature, rather than a substantive change, and such section shall be construed for all purposes as though it had always read as hereinabove set forth.” (Stats. 1943, eh. 1114.)