Whyte

Action to recover corporation taxes paid to the state under the Corporation License Tax Act (Stats. 1915, p. 422), as amended.

Plaintiff is the assignee of certain foreign corporations who paid license taxes for the years 1926 and 1927 under the act. The statute was declared to be unconstitutional in the case of Perkins v. Jordan, 200 Cal. 668 - [ 254 Pac. 551 ], and taxes paid thereunder were held in Welsback v. State, 206 Cal. 552 [ 275 Pac. 436 ], to be recoverable.

In the present action a judgment was entered by the trial court, allowing a recovery of all of the franchise taxes paid under protest and denying recovery of all paid without protest. Plaintiff appeals from that portion of the judgment denying recovery of the taxes paid without protest.

The sole question here presented is whether or not taxes collected under the unconstitutional act can be recovered back where no written protest was filed at the time of payment. Appellant’s position is that the terms of the corporation license tax are so harsh and penalties provided for so severe and drastic that payment thereunder amounts to duress and such taxes are recoverable even though no written protest against the payment…