Mercury Casualty Co. v. State Board of Equalization

Appellant Mercury Casualty Company (Mercury) appeals from the judgment entered below in favor of the respondent State Board of Equalization (Board) following a trial by the court based on stipulated facts and written and oral arguments of counsel. This appeal concerns the precise question of whether Mercury exhausted its administrative remedies under the claims statutes so as to enable it to recover taxes erroneously collected by the Board for the years 1971 through 1973, 1977 and 1978 which it paid under protest. We reject Mercury’s contentions and affirm the judgment.

Factual and Procedural Backgroúnd

The parties to this appeal have litigated the propriety of the Board’s taxation of such interest as gross premiums for the years 1964 through 1970. In Mercury Casualty Co. v. State Bd. of Equalization (1983) 141 Cal.App.3d 43 [ 190 Cal.Rptr. 72 ] (Mercury I), Division Four of this District determined the issue against the Board and held that the interest was not part of the gross premiums for purposes of the gross premium tax. The decision in Mercury 1 became final on June 16, 1983, when our Supreme Court denied the Board’s petition for hearing.

Before the decision in…