Berryessa Cattle Co. v. Sunset Pacific Oil Co.

The property of the Sunset Pacific Oil Company was in the hands of a receiver appointed August 28, 1931, by the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California in a creditors’ bill, and also in a suit to foreclose a trust deed.

The Sunset Pacific Oil Company was engaged in the business of producing oil and through a subsidiary, the Seaboard Petroleum Company, a corporation, operated an oil refinery. On December 24, 1931, the Controller of the State of California, acting on behalf of the estate, filed a claim for taxes which had accrued prior to the receivership, amounting with penalties to $6,519.27 upon gasoline produced by the Sunset Pacific Oil Company. This tax was for the quarter ending March 31, 1931. The total tax due at that time was $51,-021.72. The corporation paid $45,095.11 and declined to pay the balance of the tax, $5,926.61. By reason of the nonpayment of this portion of the tax a 10 per cent, penalty attached on May 15, 1931. The refusal to pay this portion of the tax concededly due is based upon the contention that the Sunset Pacific Oil Company had theretofore paid $5,926.61 upon gasoline produced between September 1, 1929, and…