Court Opinion

ID: 9748383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:00:54.271843+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:34.990995
License: Public Domain

WIENER, Acting P.J.
 ? I concur in the result reached by the lead opinion and the majority of its reasoning. The only area of concern I have is the issue of exclusivity. While I would concede the trend has been to expand the concept of possessory interest almost beyond any limits (see Ehrman & Flavin, Taxing Cal. Property (3d. ed. 1989) § 3.08, ch. 3, p. 22), I agree with many of the *440thoughts ably expressed in the dissent on the parameters of the exclusivity doctrine. Were we writing on a clean slate, I would be inclined to hold that a use of property is not “exclusive”—and hence not a taxable possessory interest—where the character of the use is identical to that shared with members of the general public on an unrestricted basis.
As the dissent implicitly recognizes, however (dis. opn., post, pp. 444-445), such an approach is difficult to square with the decision in Scott-Free River Expeditions, Inc. v. County of El Dorado (1988) 203 Cal.App.3d 896 [250 Cal.Rptr. 504]. There, the court held that the county could tax the possessory interest in a river held by 80 commercial rafting companies despite the fact that members of the general public enjoyed unrestricted use of tiie river for noncommercial rafting purposes. The 80 companies’ use was viewed as “exclusive” even though any number of rafts of any size carrying any number of people could also use the river. Apparently as long as the commercial use of the public property is in some way restricted, the character of the use need be no different than that enjoyed by the public generally. Under this theory, putting aside interstate commerce considerations, I assume a state could issue permits to trucking companies and proceed to tax the companies for their “possessory interest” in the state’s roadways.
Unlike the dissent, I do not find the Scott-Free rationale distinguishable. It is true that there, the number of commercial rafters who could obtain permits to use the river was directly limited by the County of El Dorado to 80 whereas here there is no comparable restriction on the number of commercial planes which can land at Lindbergh Field. Nonetheless, the commercial use of the airport is restricted. Only certain airlines have scheduled flights originating or terminating in San Diego and facilities there to load, unload and service passengers. Moreover, it is only regularly scheduled airlines which can obtain landing permits (see lead opn., ante, pp. 426, 429) and which are subject to the tax on their possessory interest. An unscheduled landing by a commercial airliner (e.g., an emergency landing) would not result in a possessory interest tax.
Having concluded that Scott-Free controls but that its reasoning can be questioned, I recognize we are not bound to follow the decision of any other intermediate appellate court with which we disagree. I believe that in these circumstances, however, the values served by the doctrine of stare decisis are paramount. We rarely visit the subject of taxation, even less frequently the arcane subject of possessory interests. Others, however, such as the County of San Diego here, have a keener interest in the topic because it directly affects their fiscal planning. Consequently, published cases on this subject— *441particularly those like Scott-Free which authorize taxation—are understandably relied on by public agencies throughout the state. The Scott-Free decision is now over three years old—more than sufficient time for governmental agencies to take it into account in setting tax policy. Disagreeing with Scott-Free would virtually require the Supreme Court to grant review to resolve the conflict. To avoid this situation, I conclude the most appropriate course of action here is to rely on precedent to validate the County’s possessory interest tax.