Pauley

The following opinion, prepared by SAWTELLE, Circuit Judge, is adopted as the opinion of the court by WILBUR and GARRECHT, Circuit Judges:

During the period involved in the instant case, the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Acts of California provided that every distributor should pay a 3-cent license tax on each gallon of motor vehicle fuel sold and distributed in the state. Pursuant to those acts, the state filed its claim against the receivership estate of Producers & Refiners, Inc., Limited. The claim was allowed in the sum of $12,121.71.

The appellee state contends that it has a lien for that amount upon all the property of the Producers & Refiners Company, and to the proceeds from the sale of such property in the possession of the receiver, and that by virtue of the lien it is entitled to priority over all the general unsecured creditors.

The appellant maintains (1) that the statutes above referred to are unconstitutional, and (2) that, even if the acts are constitutional, still the state is not entitled to any priority of payment because no valid lien was created by those statutes.

*122 ■ ■ The- amount of the tax is not in dispute. When the appellant receiver rejected the claim,…