Western Union Telegraph Co. v. County of Los Angeles

This is an action by plaintiff to recover

five hundred and fifty dollars taxes for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907, paid under protest. Judgment was in favor of plaintiff and defendant appeals therefrom. Except that the taxes were for a different year, the material facts are the same as were the facts in the case of Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Hopkins, (L. A. 2445), ante, p. 106, [ 116 Pac. 557 ], this day decided, with the single exception that the description of the property assessed in the case at bar is: “Right to occupy the streets of the city of Los Angeles,” without other words of description or identification, the valuation thereof for purposes of assessment being placed at fifty thousand dollars.

By Western Union Tel. Co. v. Hopkins, (L. A. 2445), ante, p. 106, [ 116 Pac. 557 ], it is decided that plaintiff had, at the time of this assessment, a right in the nature of a franchise in the streets of the city of Los Angeles, viz.: the right to the exclusive occupation without compensation of portions thereof used for its poles and wires and underground conduit, derived from and held under section 536 of the Civil Code, which constituted no part of its federal…