Crest Brokerage Co. v. County of Los Angeles

Introduction

On August 25, 1976, plaintiff/respondent Crest Brokerage Company, Inc. (hereinafter Crest) filed a complaint for recovery of ad valorem property taxes for 1975 which it paid under protest naming as defendants City and County of Los Angeles (hereinafter referred to collectively as Los Angeles).

On March 16, 1977, the court below granted plaintiff Crest’s motion for summary judgment, awarding plaintiff $8,818.79 as principal, $187 as interest and costs of $58.50 for a total sum of $9,064.29.

*637 Defendant Los Angeles appeals from the summary judgment in favor of plaintiff Crest.

Chronology of Relevant Events

We trace in chronological order the statutory and case law which impacts on and is relevant to the case at bench.

Prior to January 14, 1976, imported goods which remained in the original package or container, as present here, could not be subject to state taxes. The United States Supreme Court in Brown v. State of Maryland (1827) 25 U.S. (12 Wheat.) 419 [ 6 L.Ed. 678 ], stated that goods imported “while remaining the property of the importer, in his warehouse, in the original form or package in which it was imported, a tax upon it is too plainly a…