People's Water & Gas Co. v. City of Vancouver

This cause was brought to obtain • a declaratory judgment construing a provision in a contract.

Appellant was the owner of a water distributing system serving the inhabitants of the City of Vancouver. The city agreed to acquire the system by contract dated October 31, 1936, which provided with respect to taxes: “On transfer of the water system to the City, all taxes,' assessments, insurance, rents, and items of like nature, shall be prorated as of the date of transfer on the basis of an accrual of such charges for the year in which the same are payable, to the end that the Company shall pay such taxes, insurance, rents, et cetera, as have thus accrued prior to the date of transfer of the properties and not thereafter, and the Company shall be entitled to an addition to the total price otherwise payable on account of any such accruals or prepayments.”

The transfer of the system was made to the city on June 1, 1937.

The statutory provisions (Remington’s Rev.St. of Wash.) provide that all real and personal property is “subject to assessment and taxation” on March 1 of each year, section 11111, that the taxes are to be levied “on or before the second Monday in October in each year”…