[DOWNLOAD] "Universal Consolidated Oil Co. V. Byram" by Supreme Court Of California In Bank * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Universal Consolidated Oil Co. V. Byram
- Author : Supreme Court Of California In Bank
- Release Date : January 05, 1944
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 77 KB
Description
CURTIS, J. -- Universal Consolidated Oil Company and Long Beach Harbor Oil Company duly filed with the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles, sitting as the board of equalization for said county, applications for reduction of the valuations placed by the assessor for the year 1940-1941 upon certain of their oil leases in the Long Beach Harbor-Wilmington Field. The applications were denied by the board, and the oil companies thereupon commenced these actions to enjoin collection of the taxes and to have the court revalue the leasehold interests for assesment purposes. As the premise of their respective claims to relief, the plaintiffs charged that the particular method of assessment used in relation to their leases produced valuations which were unfair, unjust and excessive as compared with other property holdings of substantially the same character and value and similarly situated in the county, and so imposed an unequal burden upon the complainants; that the clear purport of the testimony presented at the hearing before the board established these matters as proper cases for equalization, but that the board, in its summary denial of the applications for reduction, intentionally failed and refused to consider the evidence before it and, in disregard thereof, expressly, deliberately, and wilfully withheld decision of the questions of fact in issue; and that their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the laws have thereby been invaded. In their individual complaints the plaintiffs also recited their tender to the tax collector, and his rejection, of certain amounts which they estimated as properly representative of the taxes due for the year in question under a fair valuation of their leases, and such sums, together with the respective balances purportedly owing upon the basis of the assessed values, were deposited in court as a condition to the issuance of temporary injunctions in restraint of the collection of the challenged taxes pending the final determination of these matters. (County of Los Angeles v. Ballerino, 99 Cal. 593. 597 [32 P. 581, 34 P. 329]; County of Los Angeles v. Ransohoff, 24 Cal. App. 2d 238. 245 [74 P.2d 828].) The defendant tax collector in his respective answers denied the material charges of the complaints as to the illegality of the method of computing the taxes in question and the failure of the board to determine the points in controversy upon the merits.