Brenner

Plaintiff sued to recover certain taxes paid

under protest to the city of Los Angeles. A general demurrer to his complaint was overruled and defendant declining to answer, judgment by default was rendered in favor of the plaintiff. From said judgment the city of Los Angeles prosecutes this appeal.

The complaint is drafted in two counts both based on sections of an ordinance of the city of Los Angeles providing for the assessment and collection of city taxes and the said ordinance is fully set forth in the complaint. The essential facts disclosed by the complaint are that on the first day of March,

1906, plaintiff was the owner of certain real property in the city of Los Angeles upon which a recorded mortgage for sixty thousand dollars was held by the regents of the University of California. No part of this mortgage had been paid. The assessor in making his assessment for the year 1906 placed the valuation of the property of plaintiff at eighty-two thousand dollars and failed to deduct sixty thousand dollars for the mortgage although he had done so in his assessment of the year before. The ordinance provided that the city might exact from each taxpayer a statement under oath…