City of San Jose v. Ruthroff & Englekirk Consulting Structural Engineers, Inc.

Opinion

ELKINGTON, J. An ordinance of the City of San Jose (San Jose), a charter city, provides among other things that: “Every person engaged in the City of San Jose, whether or not at a fixed place of business in such City [with an average number of employees in such business of five or less], in the business of: ... (c) Any profession or semi-profession; or (d) Any other business or businesses; [with certain here inapplicable exceptions] shall pay to the City of San Jose ... [a minimum] annual license.tax of thirty dollars ($30.00) per annum, . . .” The tax is levied for revenue, and not for regulatory, purposes.

Defendant and appellant Ruthroff & Englekirk Consulting Structural Engineers, Inc. (Ruthroff) is a professional engineering firm licensed [464]by the State of California (see Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6700 et seq.) as a civil and structural engineer. It maintains offices within, and pays business license taxes to, the cities of Los Angeles, Oakland, and Newport Beach.

A building complex was in the course of construction in San Jose, under direction of an architect whose business headquarters was in Los Angeles. Under a contract with the architect, Ruthroff, in Oakland, performed some structural engineering services for the San Jose project mainly under telephone direction from the architect. in Los Angeles. The contract price was $5,500 based, apparently, upon 220 hours of RuthrofFs employees’ time. During the course of the San Jose project’s construction an engineer employee of Ruthroff visited the San Jose site to inspect the work progress five or six times, and he, or another, had accompanied the architect to answer any questions generated upon application for a permit from a San Jose “building official.” The total time spent in San Jose during the course of the project by RuthrofFs employees was about 12 hours. All of the remaining work of Ruthroff was performed in Oakland.

San Jose levied the minimum license tax of $30 against Ruthroff under its ordinance, based upon RuthrofFs above-described business there during the taxable year. RuthrofFs protest in time led to a determination of the superior court that the tax was properly levied. We review that adjudication upon the superior court’s certification under rule 63, California Rules of Court, that a transfer to this court appears necessary to secure uniformity of decision and to settle an important question of law.

City of Los Angeles v. Shell Oil Co. (1971) 4 Cal.3d 108 [93 Cal. Rptr. 1, 480 P.2d 953] (cert, den., 404 U.S. 831 [30 L.Ed.2d 61, 92 S.Ct. 73]) and General Motors Corp. v. City of Los Angeles (1971) 5 Cal.3d 229 [95 Cal.Rptr. 635, 486 P.2d 163] are beyond any doubt the state’s leading authorities on the issue here presented. They will be deemed to have superseded inconsistent language, if any, of earlier cases. (In quoting from them the italics, generally, are ours.)