Court Opinion

ID: 9566781
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:43:03.470447+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:52.707086
License: Public Domain

KNIGHT, J., Concurring and dissenting.
I concur in that portion of the foregoing opinion which holds that no appeal lies from the judgment of reversal rendered by the appellate department of the superior court and that therefore the present appeal must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction to entertain it; but I do not concur in the remaining portion thereof whereby after rejecting the appeal the opinion goes on to consider a controlling issue in the case and to decide that issue contrary to the conclusion reached thereon by the superior court in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, namely, whether the cause of action sued upon was such as fell within the jurisdiction of the municipal court to hear and determine. In fact, as will be noted, the opinion goes much further and assumes to adjudge that “The purported trial in the municipal court and the purported appeal to the appellate *283department of the superior court were void as beyond the jurisdiction of the respective courts,” and in mandatory terms directs that the municipal court “must now transfer the cause to the superior court so that the latter court may exercise its original trial jurisdiction.”
Ostensibly the effect of the above portion of the opinion is to nullify with directions the very judgment which this court holds it is without jurisdiction to review. However, if this court is correct in holding that it is without jurisdiction to consider the appeal, it must follow necessarily that it may not thereafter clothe itself with jurisdiction to adjudicate any of the controlling disputed issues presented by the abortive appeal; and that whatever it may say in that behalf must be deemed pure obiter dictum, and therefore not binding on either of the parties to the action or either of the courts against which it is directed; nor, assuming that the directions given therein be followed, would the obiter dictum become the law of the case so as to be binding on whatever appellate court may be called upon hereafter to review the same disputed question on an appeal from the judgment to be rendered by the superior court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction.
Irrespective, however, of the question of the binding effect of the obiter dictum, I disagree with the conclusion reached therein that all proceedings had in the municipal court, and those had subsequently in the superior court in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, were void. In order to reach that conclusion it was necessary to hold primarily that the action was one involving the “legality” of a tax, as that term is employed in section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure; and in so holding the main opinion follows a rule of construction declared in a group of Louisiana cases, which are apparently conflicting with earlier decisions of that state, and which rule is obviously contrary to the one declared and followed universally in several other jurisdictions, including the federal. It is my view that the rule followed in these latter jurisdictions is not only sustained by the weight of authority but is the proper one to be applied in determining when an action involves the legality of a tax. Briefly stated, the rule is this: That an action does not involve the legality or validity of a tax unless the question is raised as to the power of the legislative body to enact the law or to impose the tax; and that where the issue to be tried pertains only to an interpretation, construction or application of particular provisions of a law *284admittedly valid, it cannot be said that the action involves the legality or validity of the tax imposed thereby. Among the jurisdictions applying that rule is Arizona, wherein there exists a constitutional provision containing a clause framed in language substantially the same as that embodied in our section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure; and in the several cases in which the Supreme Court of that state has been called upon to deal with the question it has cited authorities from the various other jurisdictions which have adopted and followed the same rule. One of the Arizona cases is State v. Downen, 17 Ariz. 365 [152 P. 857], wherein the court said: “The ‘validity of a tax, impost, assessment, toll, municipal fine, or statute, ’ as used in the Constitution, has reference to the power to impose the tax, impost, assessment, toll, or fine, or the power of the Legislature to enact the statute involved, and has no reference to the construction of a coneededly valid law or statute by which the tax, impost, assessment, toll or fine is imposed,” citing Baltimore & Potomac R. R. Co. v. Hopkins, 130 U.S. 210 [9 S.Ct. 503, 32 L.Ed. 908]; Doty v. Krutz, 13 Wash. 169 [43 P. 17]; Standard Oil Co. v. Angevine, 60 Kan. 167 [55 P. 879]. In a later case, Fee v. Arizona State Tax Commission, 55 Ariz. 67 [98 P.2d 467], the same doctrine is quoted and the following additional authorities are cited in support thereof: Sylvester v. Franklin County, 90 Wash. 648 [156 P. 843]; Town of Colonial Beach v. De Atley, 154 Va. 451, [153 S.E. 734]; and in an earlier case, Boehringer v. Yuma County, 15 Ariz. 546 [140 P. 507], the court after stating the same general rule and citing other and different authorities, quotes the following from a Washington case (Doty v. Krutz, supra) : “Whether an action is properly brought under a statute, whether a recovery can be had under a statute, or whether there is any statute governing a particular action, are all questions of the construction of statutes, but are not questions which go to the validity of a statute.” The Arizona court then goes on to say: “If statutes are constitutional in themselves, the fact that they have been misconstrued or misapplied by the inferior tribunal is not sufficient to invoke the jurisdiction of this court, ’ ’ citing State v. Third Justice of the Peace, 12 La.Ann. 789; Police Jury v. Manuel Villaviabo, 12 La.Ann. 788; State v. Marshall, 47 La.Ann. 646 [17 So. 202].
An examination of the decisions rendered in City of Madera v. Black, 181 Cal. 306 [184 P. 397], and City of Independence V. Hindenach, 144 Kan. 414 [61 P.2d 124, 107 *285A.L.R. 645], cited in the main opinion, discloses that neither applied any rule different from that stated in the Arizona eases. In the City of Madera case the determinative question urged and considered was as to the power of the legislative body of the city of Madera to enact a certain ordinance affecting the entire city; moreover it was expressly averred in the demurrer that the action involved the legality of a tax and consequently was triable in the superior court; and upon the filing of the answer the defendant demanded that it be certified to the superior court. Likewise in the Kansas case the controlling issue presented was as to the power of the legislative body to pass the ordinance. In the Virginia case, also cited in the main opinion (Unemployment Compensation Commission v. Harvey 179 Va. 202 [18 S.E.2d 390]), the statute considered was essentially different from our code section 89 in that it included “controversies . . . involving the construction of any statute, ordinance or county proceeding imposing taxes” etc. (italics added); and the West Virginia case (Bank v. County Court, 36 W.Va. 341 [15 S.E. 78]) has little if any bearing whatever on the precise point here under discussion.
It is true that the group of Louisiana cases cited in the main opinion do hold that where an action involves the interpretation, construction or application of the provisions of a tax law, the action involves the validity or legality of the tax, notwithstanding that it is conceded that the law imposing the tax is valid and no question is raised as to the power of the legislative body to enact the law or impose the tax provided for therein. But as stated, in earlier cases the courts of that state apparently applied the doctrine universally adhered to in the other jurisdictions. Among those earlier cases are Second Municipality v. Corning, 4 La.Ann. 407; State v. Rebassa, 9 La.Ann. 305; State v. Third Justice of the Peace, supra; State v. Marshall, supra; Police Jury v. Manuel Villaviabo, supra. In that situation, and since the plaintiff herein has definitely taken the position that the municipal court had original jurisdiction, I am unwilling, in the present proceeding, in the absence of compelling reasons, to join in the obiter dictum repudiating the doctrine universally followed in the various jurisdictions above mentioned, and to stand committed to a contrary doctrine declared by a group of cases from a state wherein there exists an apparent conflict in the decisions.
Here the record shows the following: The action was *286brought in the municipal court by a state agency to recover the sum of $478.68 and interest claimed to be due under the provisions of a statute known as the California Unemployment Reserves Act, it being alleged in the complaint that the defendant’s employees were subject to the provisions of the act. Among the classifications of labor expressly exempted from the operation of the act are (a) agricultural labor and (b) domestic service in private homes. The defendant denied the allegations that its employees were subject to the provisions of the act and claimed that under the peculiar arrangement whereunder the men were employed and the character of the work they performed, they were brought within the exempted classification. At no time did defendant urge by way of pleading or otherwise that the Unemployment Reserves Act or any of its provisions were unconstitutional, or for any reason invalid, or that the Legislature was wanting in power to enact the law or to impose the taxes provided for therein. Thus the municipal court was called upon to decide a pure question of fact and the evidence was directed to that one issue. The evidence consisted of an agreed statement of facts, and the municipal court found therefrom that the facts were such as brought the employees within the exempted classifications, and accordingly gave judgment for the defendant. The plaintiff, claiming that the municipal court’s decision was contrary to the facts, appealed to the appellate department of the superior court, and the appeal was presented on the same agreed statement of the facts. At no time on the appeal was it contended that the law was invalid, or that the Legislature was without power to enact it or to impose the taxes therein provided for. Therefore, the only question submitted to the appellate department of the superior court was whether under the peculiar facts of this particular case the municipal court was legally justified in holding that said employees were brought within the exempted classifications; and the judgment of the municipal court was reversed. Two written opinions were filed, the second being a concurring opinion by the presiding judge, and as shown by both opinions, the only question urged on the appeal, and considered and determined by the superior court was whether, under the admitted facts, the character of the work performed by said employees and the nature of their employment brought them within either of the two exempted classifications.
Subsequent to the entry of its judgment of reversal the superior court denied defendant’s petition for rehearing. No *287part of the petition is included in the record before us, nor is there anything therein to show upon what grounds the petition was based. It appears inferentially from plaintiff's brief that when the petition for rehearing was presented, defendant for the first time contended that the action involved the legality of a tax and that therefore the municipal court was without jurisdiction to hear the action; but even so, nowhere in the record before us does it appear that defendant has ever made the claim that the law is unconstitutional or invalid or that the Legislature did not have power to impose the taxes provided for therein.' Defendant’s sole contention was, and now is, that the municipal court was right and that the appellate department of the superior court was wrong in their respective determinations of the issue of whether under the admitted facts the work defendant’s employees had been performing excluded them from the two exempted classifications set forth in the statute. Such being the state of the record, it is my conclusion that the appellate department of the superior court properly refused to vacate and set aside its judgment of reversal and acted entirely within the scope of its appellate jurisdiction in disposing of the appeal. I therefore limit my concurrence in the main opinion to that portion thereof which holds that the present appeal should be dismissed for want of jurisdiction to entertain it.
Appellant’s and respondent’s petitions for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied June 17, 1943. Curtis, J., and Carter, J., voted for a hearing.