Farmers' & Merchants' Bank of Los Angeles v. Board of Equalization of Los Angeles

This appeal is from a judgment of the superior court of Los Angeles County annulling an order made by the common council of the city of Los Angeles sitting as a board of equalization.

The judgment was rendered in a proceeding under a writ of review, issued upon a petition and the affidavit of John Milner, the cashier of the plaintiff, a corporation doing a general banking business at Los Angeles. No return to the writ was made; but it was stipulated that “ the said petition and the matters stated therein shall be treated and considered as the certified transcript of the record and proceedings of the city council sitting as a board of equalization in the matter of the assessment complained of.”

This stipulation is not altogether satisfactory. Questions raised upon such a proceeding are to be determined by an inspection of the record, and, in general, not upon pleadings or evidence. It is perfectly manifest that many matters stated in the petition were not, and could not have been, in the records of the board of equaliza *321 tion. The only course open to us would seem to be to regard only those matters as transcripts of the record which are stated to be such, or are such orders…