City of Los Angeles v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co.

Opinion

KINGSLEY, Acting P. J. The city appeals from a judgment dismissing its complaint as against defendant and respondent company, after that defendant’s demurrer had been sustained without leave to amend. We affirm the judgment.

[381]On or about March 9, 1961, the city and defendant entered into an agreement whereby the city was granted the right to construct improvements on certain real property of defendant located at the Port of Los Angeles. The agreement provided that, if the parties could not agree on the price to be paid for the property, the city would institute a condemnation action. No such agreement having been reached, the city filed its condemnation action, resulting in a judgment of condemnation.

During the period of occupancy, and until the entiy of the judgment of condemnation, defendant paid real property taxes levied by the County of Los Angeles on the subject property, in the amount of $302,396.75.

In the judgment in the condemnation action, the court included the following provisions:

“It Is Further Ordered, Adjudged, and Decreed that possession having been taken by plaintiff on March 9, 1961, all taxes, penalties, and costs that are a lien on said parcels and that are apportioned to that portion of the fiscal years after said date are hereby canceled pursuant to Revenue and Taxation Code Section 4986 et seq. of the Revenue and Taxation Code.” and ordered the city to pay to defendant the amount of taxes theretofore paid by it. The city duly paid that amount, with interest. The county having refused to reimburse the city, it then filed the present action, naming both the county and this defendant as parties defendant, seeking to recover the amount paid under the condemnation judgment. The trial court sustained the demurrer of this defendant and dismissed the action;1 the city has appealed; we affirm.

At the times herein involved, section 1252.2 of the Code of Civil Procedure2 provided as follows; “When the property sought to be taken by eminent domain does not have a separate valuation on the assessment roll, any party to the eminent domain proceeding may, at any time after the taxes on such property are subject to cancellation pursuant to Section 4986 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, apply to the tax collector for a separate valuation of such property in accordance with Article 3 (commencing with Section 2821) of Chapter 3 of Part 5 of Division 1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code notwithstanding any provision in such article to the contrary.” It is the contention of the city, in this proceeding, that that action by the condemnation court was beyond its