Schwab

This is an action to recover taxes paid under protest by the Oceanic Steamship Company to the state of California. After answer plaintiff moved for a judgment upon the pleadings, which was denied. At the trial plaintiff submitted the case upon the admission in the pleadings, without offering any evidence upon the issues, and judgment was rendered in favor of the defendant. Plaintiff appeals.

The Oceanic Steamship Company is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of California and engaged exclusively in the business of transporting freight and passengers between San. Francisco and the Hawaiian Islands and certain foreign countries. The company has maintained offices in San Francisco for the transaction of its interstate and foreign business, but has conducted no other business in this state except the purchase of its fuel and supplies used in its transportation business.

The state board of equalization assessed the franchise of the company, or its “corporate excess” (Miller & Lux, Incorporated v. Richardson, 182 Cal. 115 [ 187 Pac. 411 ]), at eight hundred thousand dollars and apportioned one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, or fifteen per cent thereof, to…