H. Y. Minami & Sons v. State Board of Equalization

ADAMS, P. J. This is an action brought by H. Y. Minami and Sons, a copartnership composed of H. Y. Minami, H. Y. Minami, Jr., and Y. Minami, to recover taxes paid under protest. Judgment was entered in favor of defendants, and this appeal by plaintiffs followed.

Plaintiffs, during the period for which the tax was imposed, were licensed as commission merchants, dealers and brokers under the requirements of the Agricultural Code, and were engaged in the business of packing and shipping fresh vegetables grown by others in the Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County. Their principal place of business was Guadalupe, in Santa Barbara County. The shipping was carried [328]on in their own trucks, their principal markets being Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and other valley towns. The ground upon which they based their action for a refund is that they transported what was exclusively their own property in motor vehicles owned and operated by them, and were therefore exempt from the taxes imposed, as the act under which they were imposed, now section 9603 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, exempts any person so doing.

The only question presented here is whether appellants brought themselves within the said exemption by establishing that the garden produce which they transported was their own property or whether such produce belonged to the growers and was transported by appellants on consignment for sale. Shipments consisted mainly of dry pack, ’ ’ to wit, produce picked in the field and shipped without further processing. The trial court, on conflicting evidence, found that the agreements between the growers and appellants, which were oral, were that the grower was to receive an amount to be determined on the basis of the Los Angeles local markets, and that the transactions were consignments to appellants for sales and not sales.

Appellants’ counsel argues with great earnestness that the evidence shows that appellants were the owners of the produce shipped, and that the judgment of the trial court should be reversed upon the ground that it is not supported by the evidence. But this court is bound by the rule that before an appellate tribunal is justified in reversing a judgment upon the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence, it must appear from the record that, accepting the full force of the evidence adduced, together with every inference favorable to the prevailing party which may be drawn therefrom, and, excluding all evidence in conflict therewith, the law precludes such prevailing party from recovering a judgment; that every favorable inference and presumption which fairly may be deduced from the evidence should be resolved in favor of the prevailing party, that such party’s evidence must, ordinarily, be accepted as true, and that evidence which is contradictory must be disregarded. (See Macaulay v. Booth, 53 Cal.App.2d 757, 761 [128 P.2d 386]; Singh v. Corbin, 65 Cal.App.2d 105, 108 [148 P.2d 866] ; Gray v. Hartman, 73 Cal.App.2d 401, 405 [166 P.2d 374]; Tanner v. Sherman, 67 Cal.App.2d 586, 588 [154 P.2d 906].)