San Francisco Brewing Corp. v. Johnson

PEEK, J. These are consolidated appeals from judgments in favor of defendants which were entered following the sustaining of demurrers to the respective plaintiffs’ complaints without leave to amend.

Each complaint contains identical allegations that the State Board of Equalization levied additional assessments on beer made by plaintiffs; that all of said beer was sold for export and was actually exported; that plaintiffs paid such assessments and thereafter petitioned the board for reassessment, which was denied, as was their petition for a refund; that the sole ground for the board’s action was the alleged failure of plaintiffs to comply with rule 54, title 4, article 10, section 54, California Administration Code. Defendants demurred on the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The demurrers were sustained without leave to amend and judgments were entered accordingly.

Section 23 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (2 Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 3796) provides for an excise tax on beer sold in this state by a manufacturer, except as otherwise provided in said act. The pertinent portions of section 23(b) of said act, as amended, provide in part:

“It shall be presumed, for the purposes of this act, that all beer manufactured in this State by a manufacturer, . . . has been sold in this State by such manufacturer unless proven to the satisfaction of the board, in reports on forms prescribed by the board, that such alcoholic beverage ... (3) has been exported without this State or sold for export by the licensee making the report. . . .

“No excise tax mentioned in Section 23 hereof shall be or is imposed by this act upon any beer exported by a licensed manufacturer from within this State to any place without the State or sold by a licensed manufacturer for export from within this State to any place without the State and actually exported from this State. . . .

“Any claim for exemption from excise tax under this section must be made to the board, in such manner as the board shall prescribe.

[481]“In the event excise taxes under this act have been paid on beer subsequently exported from the State or sold for export and actually thereafter exported from this State, a taxpayer may claim and shall be allowed credit with respect to such tax in any report filed or assessment made under this act.”