Phelps

Benjamin P. de Mayo and Nicholas S. Chrisos, County Counsel, and Laurie A. Shade, Deputy County Counsel, for Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

Plaintiff James S. Phelps, as trustee of the John Wilson Phelps Trust (trust), challenges the action of respondent Webster J. Guillory, Orange County Assessor (Assessor), in reassessing a shopping center complex (property) held by the trust upon the death of Wilson W. Phelps (Wilson), an income beneficiary of the trust, and the decision of respondent Orange County Assessment Appeals Board No. 1 (appeals board) to uphold the reassessment. Plaintiff contends the transfer of Wilson's interest as an income beneficiary to his four children did not qualify as a change of ownership under Revenue and Taxation Code section 60. [1]

For a change of ownership to occur under section 60, there must be "a transfer of a present interest in real property, including the beneficial use thereof, the value of which is substantially equal to the value of the fee interest." Plaintiff contends the trust's income beneficiaries do not have a present interest in the improvements on the property because the improvements were constructed and owned…