Hammond Lumber Co. v. County of Los Angeles

Plaintiff has appealed from a judgment in favor of defendant in this action brought to recover the amount of a tax levied on plaintiff’s possessory interest as a tenant of real property and paid under protest.

Since May, 1923, the plaintiff has been in possession of certain harbor lands, comprising about twenty-five acres, with a water frontage of about 2,500 feet, owned by the city of Los Angeles and rented by the city to plaintiff for use in plaintiff’s lumber business under a permit in the nature of a lease running to June 3, 1951, the annual rental until June 3, 1931, being $8,060.88, payable in quarterly installments, and for succeeding decennial periods to be fixed either by the parties themselves or by arbitration.

In the year 1924 the county assessor assessed plaintiff’s possessory interest in the land, apart from plaintiff’s improvements, at $234,150, and plaintiff was required to pay as the tax on its possessory interest the sum of $8,780.62, based on the rate for the year 1923. Of this amount $374.64 was returned to plaintiff after a lower tax rate had been fixed for the year 1924.

Plaintiff paid the tax under protest, and thereafter in the . month of July, 1924,…