Court Opinion

ID: 9529446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:50:52.715222+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:47.194307
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
It appears that the plaintiff taxpayer should have first pursued his remedy before the board of supervisors sitting as a local board of equalization before court action and in such action the court is limited to a review of the evidence before the board.
The factual situation should first be clarified. The majority opinion indicates that this is a case where taxes were assessed against property plaintiff did not own. That is not the case. Taxes on real property are not assessed against a person. They are assessed against the property. Property may be *170assessed to an unknown owner. (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 611.) “A mistake in the name of the owner of real estate does not render invalid an assessment or any tax sale.” (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 613.) In the ease at bar while the entire interest in the property was assessed to plaintiff as owner it was assessed against the property and it is conceded that plaintiff has an interest in the property albeit it is only a possessory interest. The only question is, therefore, whether too great a value was placed on that interest. It is not a case of assessing a tax on exempt property or property in which plaintiff had no interest. He owned a possessory interest, and that was assessed and is taxable. In Fall v. Mayor of Marysville, 19 Cal. 391, the tax was against a bridge, a reversionary interest in which was owned by the city, but which the taxpayer had the right to use. The court said (at p. 393): “There is no doubt, therefore, that the plaintiff has a taxable estate in the property, and so far as his right to maintain .this suit is concerned, it is immaterial that the property has been assessed at its full value. The objection on that ground does not go to the validity of the tax, but to its amount, and an application for its reduction was the only remedy. The property was not taxable beyond his interest in it, and in legal effect, the tax upon it amounted to nothing more than a tax upon his interest.” (Emphasis added.) In S. & G. Gump Co. v. San Francisco, 18 Cal.2d 129 [114 P.2d 346, 135 A.L.R. 595], it was held that-where property was assessed to a bailee as owner when he merely had a possessory right, he could not recover taxes paid under protest where he had not applied to the local board of equalization for a modification of the assessment and show who was the owner of the property. The court cited for its holding, Title Guaranty & Trust Co. v. Los Angeles, 3 Cal.App. 619 [86 P. 844], where property was assessed to an agent who held possession for the owner and the court said (p. 621) : “Nor are we prepared to hold that, under the circumstances, the failure of the assessor to designate the plaintiff’s principals or beneficiaries was sufficient to invalidate the assessment. It had the opportunity' of' correcting the defect, if in any way harmful to it, by application to the assessor while •the assessment-roll was still under his control, or afterward by application to the board of equalization, which had power to correct the plaintiff’s assessment, either by adding the names of the parties ultimately liable, or by transferring the whole amount taxed to the assessments of the several *171parties interested in the fund.” (See also S. W. Straus & Co. v. Los Angeles County, 128 Cal.App. 386 [17 P.2d 757].)
The general rule with regard to the necessity for first applying to the board of supervisors as a board of equalization is stated in Security-First Nat. Bank v. County of Los Angeles, 35 Cal.2d 319, 320 [217 P.2d 946]: “It is the general rule that a taxpayer seeking judicial relief from an erroneous assessment must have exhausted his remedies before the administrative body empowered initially to correct the error. . . . An exception is made when the attempted assessment is a nullity because the property is either tax exempt or outside the jurisdiction. . . . But resort to the board of equalization is not rendered unnecessary by the fact that, as in the present ease, the error is one in the classification of property . . . and the tax is assailed as being discriminatory in violation of constitutional mandates. ...
“Plaintiff contends, however, that its bank vault doors and counterlines were ‘exempt’ from taxation under constitutional principles, and that consequently prior application to the board of equalization was not a prerequisite to the maintenance of this action. The contention cannot be sustained. The vault doors, and counterlines admittedly were located within the county, city and district in which they were assessed. Clearly, they were property of a nature taxable by defendants. . . . The fact that similar property of others had been systematically misclassified as personalty and therefore relieved of the burden of special assessment district taxes would ordinarily require that plaintiff also be excused from paying such taxes. ... It does not follow, however, that plaintiff’s vault doors and counterlines were tax exempt as claimed. A somewhat similar problem was presented in Los Angeles etc. Corp. v. Los Angeles County, 22 Cal.App.2d 418 [71 P.2d 282], That case involved the assessment of a leasehold interest in tidelands owned by the city. Plaintiff contended that since the leasehold had no taxable value, the tax was one on nonexistent property and resort to the board of equalization was not necessary. In rejecting that contention, the court there said, at pp. 423-424: ‘But it does not follow that if the property belongs to a class which is subject to taxation it is nonexistent property because under the peculiar circumstances existing it is without taxable value. . . .’ ” (Emphasis added.) The same rule is stated in Bank of America v. Mundo, 37 Cal.2d 1 [229 P.2d 345]. Similarly *172in the instant case the property was taxable. At least plaintiff’s conceded possessory interest was taxable, and the question is not whether it was exempt property or outside the taxing jurisdiction.
There is no tenable distinction between this case and the rules set forth in the Security Bank case. The cases relied upon by the majority do not support the statement that resort need not be had to the local board of equalization where the person who is named as owner of the property assessed is not the owner. In Brenner v. Los Angeles, 160 Cal. 72 [116 P. 397], the claim was that all of the property against which the assessment was made was exempt from taxation. In Associated Oil Co. v. County of Orange, 4 Cal.App.2d 5 [40 P.2d 887], the assessment was on nonexistent property and the holding is doubtful in view of the Security Bank case. In Gottstein v. Adams, 202 Cal. 581 [262 P. 314], and Los Angeles v. Board of Supervisors, 108 Cal.App. 655 [292 P. 539], there was no question of exhausting the administrative remedy.
In any event it would appear that the matter should have been remanded to the local board of equalization to ascertain the value of the possessory interest and reduce the assessment accordingly, because it is that board, rather than a court, which has jurisdiction over valuation questions. (Universal Consol. Oil Co. v. Byram, 25 Cal.2d 353 [153 P.2d 746] ; La Grange etc. Co. v. Carter, 142 Cal. 560 [76 P. 241]; Los Angeles etc. Co. v. County of Los Angeles, 162 Cal. 164 [121 P. 384, 9 A.L.R. 1277].)
I would therefore reverse the judgment.