203 P. 401 | Cal. | 1921
The Utah Construction Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Utah and transacting business in Utah, California, and elsewhere, appeals from judgments rendered against it in two actions instituted by the said corporation against the treasurer of the state of California for the recovery of taxes paid to the state under protest in the fiscal years 1914-15 and 1915-16. The taxes were paid pursuant to assessments made by the state board of equalization and are respectively $4,000 and $2,268 in amount. With the exception of dates and figures, the pleadings, evidence, and findings in the two cases are practically the same, and by stipulation the evidence and judgment-roll in both cases are before this court in a single transcript.
Section 14 of article XIII of the state constitution, pertaining to taxation, is a new section, adopted in November, 1910. The pertinent portion of this section reads as follows: "(d) All franchises, other than those expressly provided for in this section, shall be assessed at their actual cash value,in the manner to be provided by law, and shall be taxed at the rate of one per centum each year, and the taxes collected thereon shall be exclusively for the benefit of the state." (Italics ours.) The italicized words afford the basis for the attack in the instant case, for appellant contends that legislative regulation of the manner of making an assessment is a prerequisite to a valid assessment when the constitution requires such legislation (McHenry v. Downer,
[1] In a statute expressly enacted for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of section 14, article XIII, of the state constitution, the legislature has, among other things, provided for the furnishing to the state board of equalization of information deemed important in ascertaining the value of franchises, that the board shall determine the value of the franchises from the information thus supplied and that the apportionment of taxes shall be based *651 upon the value obtained. (Stats. 1911, pp. 530, 541.) Consequently, in so far as the proscribing of the "manner" in which assessments are to be made imports the regulation of details of administration, the legislature has left little to be desired in its compliance with the constitutional mandate that such administrative machinery for making assessments be provided by law. Therefore, appellant necessarily takes the position that the expression quoted from the constitution refers not only to the general procedure for assessing franchises, but that the term "manner" also signifies the rule to be followed by the board in determining the value of the franchises, or, in other words, that the constitution places upon the legislature the duty of specifying the weight to be accorded the various facts required to be reported and the mathematical process to be adopted by the board in arriving at a valuation of a franchise from the information before it.
In this connection it must be noted that this court held, in the case of Miller Lux v. Richardson,
The legislature has provided for the filing by the owner or holder of every taxable franchise of a written report containing detailed information concerning capital stock, bonds, debts, property, and other matters which the legislature evidently regarded as essential to a proper assessment of the value of franchises. (Stats. 1911, pp. 530, 541.) No attempt was made to direct the board of equalization as to how it should employ such information in arriving at the value of the total assets and tangible property of the corporations; the selection of the method calculated to lead to the most accurate valuation was left to the discretion of the said board. As a general rule, it is not essential that the legislature prescribe the method of valuation to be employed, but it may delegate to its taxing officers the power to adopt a suitable method and, in the latter case, the assessors must value the property according to their best judgment and with honest purpose. (Western Union Tel. Co. v. Missouri,
Appellant next contends that the proceedings whereby the taxes in question were imposed were void for the reason that there was no assessment, that is, no actual valuation, of appellant's franchise. It is claimed that, instead of ascertaining the cash value of the franchise from the data before it, the board of equalization first estimated the amount of the tax which the members considered the corporation should pay and then some clerk figured out an assessment which would yield a tax equal to the desired amount. This contention is based upon the testimony of the secretary of the *654 board of equalization to the effect that the members of the board determine the amount of the tax and indorse this on the back of the corporation's franchise tax return and that afterward some clerk "will figure the assessment, whatever it may be, from the tax." The secretary further testified, however, that he was seldom present when the members of the board were assessing franchises and that he was not present when appellant's franchise was assessed in 1914. There was no evidence as to whether or not he was present at the 1915 assessment. Only one person who was present when the franchise was assessed was called as a witness. He was a member of the board and not a single question was asked of him as to what method the board had followed in fixing the amount of the tax or as to whether or not the franchise had been valued by the board and the amount of the tax determined in accordance with the value thus arrived at. He was questioned merely as to what evidence was before the board when the assessments were made, and he testified that the board had before it appellant's franchise tax returns. Nowhere in the record is there any evidence concerning the method followed by the board in arriving at the amount of the tax.
[2] It is a rule applicable to assessors and to boards having assessing powers that it is presumed that the assessing officers have properly performed the duties entrusted to them and, consequently, that their assessments are both regularly and correctly made. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1963, subd. 15;Reclamation Dist. v. Wilcox,
[4] Inasmuch as there is not a particle of evidence that the assessments were fraudulently or mistakenly made, or that an improper method of valuation was pursued, we cannot consider appellant's complaint that the taxes were excessive. (Miller Lux v. Richardson,
The judgments are affirmed.
Wilbur, J., Sloane, J., Shurtleff, J., Richards, J., protem., Waste, J., and Shaw, C. J., concurred.
Rehearing denied.
All the Justices concurred.