Outer Harbor Dock & Wharf Co. v. City of Los Angeles

The appeal involves two cases between the same parties in which the same questions are raised, and which by stipulation are presented in one record and as one appeal. The actions were brought to compel the city of Los Angeles to refund; taxes alleged to have been illegally and erroneously collected by the tax officers of said city during the years 1911, 1912, 1913, and 1914, from . plaintiff!, on assessments against. “improvements” upon the tide-lands within- the city of Los Angeles and fronting upon the navigable waters of Los Angeles harbor, and for the years 1915 and 1916 against plaintiff’s leasehold interest in a certain wharf and two warehouses upon said tide-lands, and for the year 1915-, against plaintiff’s leasehold interest in said tide-lands, said tide-lands being owned by the state of California and held by plaintiff under lease from the city of San Pedro, the municipal predecessor of the city of Los Angeles. The lease was made in February, 1906, and was approved and ratified by the legislature by an act of March 23, 1907. The lease was rewritten in July, 1907, in order to conform to certain changes in the harbor lines as made by the United States war department. The…