The San Francisco call., 1906-04-01
Supreme Court Decides That
County Officers Have the
Right to Collect Revenue
From Their Real Holdings
ALL ROLLING STOCK
NOW HELD SEPARATE
Hereafter Corporations Must
Deal With Local as Well
as Equalization Officers
in the Valuing of Property

Lie fdTlOuS OdQ COIpOTdllOuS O1 LIS
State of California were given painful
jolt by the Supreme Court yesterday
morning, when the Justices decided that
all the real property Of the roads, such as
real estate. terminal depots, passenger and
freight sheds and the like, must hereafter
be assessed by the County Assessors of
each county, instead of by the State
Board Of Equalization, which exercised
this power over the roads for many years.
This decision was handed down in the
case of the San Francisco and San Joa-
quin Valley Railroad of Stockton, plain
tiff, against the city of Stockton, defend
ant. The action was brought by the rail-
road company some time ago, when 1T
sought to recover certain sums of money
paid to the city of Stockton as taxes on
property of the railroad. The suit was
bitterly fought by both sides and was
watched with great interest, not only by
the county officials from all over the
State, but also by all the railroad officials
of the country.
The decision is delivered in bank and is
signed by every Justice Of the Supreme
Court with the exception of Beatty. The
signatures Of Justices Angellotti, Shaw,
Sloss, Mcfarland, Lorigan and Henshaw
all appear on Ii. This means the finding
is practically a final one and that the rail-
nothing by demanding rehearing.
FIGHT STATE CONSTITUTION.
The railroad company brought its suit to
recover the money from the city of Stock
ton, alleging that section 10, article 13, of
the State constitution, which reads as fol-
lows, had been violated:
'tAll property, except as hereinafter in
this section provided, shall be assessed in
the county, city. city and county. town,
township and district in which it is situ-
ated, in the manner prescribed by law.
The franchise, roadway, roadbed, rails
and rolling stock of all railroads operated
in more than one county in this State
shall be assessed by the State Board of
Equalization at their actual value, and
the same shall be apportioned to the
counties cities and counties cities, towns
and townships and districts in which such
railroads are located in proportion to the
number of miles of railway laid in such
counties, cities and counties, cities, towns,
townships and districts
The officials of the city of Stockton as
sessed and taxed such real property of the
San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley
Railroad Company as was not enumerated
in the section quoted and collected certain
moneys from the corporation as taxes.
The company at once brought suit for the
return of the money and to have the law
clearly outlined regarding this statute,
and after much squabbling and fighting
the case finally reached the Supreme
Court.
The decision reached by the court will
be general, and this means that hereafter
each County Assessor will assess the real
property of all railroads in each county
every year. The Tax Collector of the
counties will collect the amount of the
assessments and the coin must be paid
into each county treasury. This will mean
a great gain to each county, al well as
the vesting of much more power in the
Assessors and Tax Collectors of each
county.
STATES TAXES ROLLING STOCK.
The State Board of Equalization will still
retain the right to assess all the rolling
stock, roadbeds, rails and franchises of
the railroads in all portions of the State,
but the revenue derived from the assess
ment of the real property Of the corpora
tions is much greater than that repre-
sented by the rolling stock and equip
ment, and it is certain that the County
Assessors will place much higher value
upon it than the State Board of Equaliza-
ton was wont to do.
In making its ruling in regard to the
rolling stock of the various railroads
the Supreme Court holds that it would
De lnDOSSIDlc " BiN0 lIlS COunly dS-
SCISSORS the power to tax this property,
for the reason that it has no certain
or specified home, being in operation
most of the time. This ruling was made
IN regard to the railroads operated in
more than one county. The court there
fore held the county assessors could not
legally assess this rolling stock, as it
was not within their jurisdiction.
In rendering their decision, the Jus
I.
thoroughly many cases of a similar
character decided by the Supreme
Courts of various other States, and find
that in almost every instance rulings
of a similar nature have been made, and
the railroad corporations forced to pay
to the county Tax Collector the sum as.
sessed against them by the Assessors
of such counties.
The court devotes several long type
written pages to defining the term
roadway as acquired by the railroad
corporations. According to the deci-
sion, the roadway is a strip of land nine
rods wide, as provided by law, given to
the railroad companies on which to
operate their lines after constructing
tracks, switches and other essentials
necessary to the operation and equip
ment of the railroads.
COURT DEFINES A BROADWAY"
The court holds that the portion of
the railway tracks operated through the
streets of the city of Stockton was not
a roadway strictly speaking. This, ac-
cording to the ruling of the court, was
nothing more than local property, and
as such was certainly entitled to be
assessed by the county officials the
same as the freight sheds, passenger
depot and other property within the
limits of the city Of Stockton. Regard
ing the other assessments levied by the
city OF Stockton in 1900, the court holds
as follows:
'It is urged that the property includ-
ed in the first three assessments here
inbefore described was in fact included
in the assessment made by the State
Board of Equalization for the year 1900.
That, however, is entirely immaterial
here. Not being within the classes of
property specified in the constitutional
provision, any attempted assessment
thereof by such board was, as we have
already seen, absolutely void, and did
not preclude a valid assessment thereof
by the local authorities. There is no
other point recurring notice The