McClelland v. Board of Supervisors

180 P.2d 676, 30 Cal. 2d 124, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 155
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 21, 1947
DocketL. A. 19924
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 180 P.2d 676 (McClelland v. Board of Supervisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClelland v. Board of Supervisors, 180 P.2d 676, 30 Cal. 2d 124, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 155 (Cal. 1947).

Opinion

SCHAUER, J.

Petitioner is the owner of a 44-unit apartment house located in the city of Los Angeles. In July, 1946, the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County, sitting as a board of equalization, after a hearing denied applications made to it by petitioner and by approximately 700 other owners of multiple-dwelling properties in that county for the reduction of the assessment valuations of their various properties. (See Rev. & Tax. Code, §§ 1601-1615.) Thereafter petitioner, “on behalf of herself and all other taxpayers of the county of Los Angeles ... of the same class and similarly situated,” instituted this certiorari proceeding. It was contended before the board and petitioner contends here that by reason of a 1946 increase in the assessment valuations of multiple-dwelling improvements the tax assessments against such properties were unfair, unjust and excessive, and resulted in unequal and illegally discriminatory tax burdens as compared with the assessments upon other real property in the county. It is urged that upon the established facts the hoard exceeded its jurisdiction when it denied the applications for equalization. The relief asked of the board, and in ultimate effect through the process of this court, is that the 1946 assessed valuations be reduced to those of 1945.

In support of her position petitioner alleges that in the year 1940, the assessor of Los Angeles County made a general revaluation of all real property improvements in the county and entered such valuations in the 1940 county assessment-roll; that “no general changes in the assessable valuations of said real property improvements were thereafter made” until the taxable year 1946; that in 1946, the assessor “undertook a piecemeal revaluation of buildings hut applied it only to certain real properties . . ., to wit: multiple dwelling improvements . . . hotels and in a limited way to special type loft and office buildings; but . . . made no changes in the assessable values of single-family dwelling properties, or, generally speaking, in commercial and industrial property improvements or in vacant lands generally, in said County”; that for the year 1946, the assessed valuation of the improvements on petitioner’s property was increased from $40,000 to $54,000 *126 and that of the land remained at the previous figure of $2,450; that as of the taxable year 1946 “the market or selling price of all real property and improvements situated in said County had risen to higher levels in comparison with the market or selling price of said real property and improvements for . . . 1940 to 1945”; that “any prior enhancement in the value of improved property, due to the higher costs of labor and materials, to scarcity or legal restrictions upon the purchase or use of building materials, was general and uniform as to all types of building construction taxable in the said County”; that, therefore, “it was the duty of the Assessor . . . either to increase, readjust and equalize all valuations of real property and improvements in said County for the taxable year 1946-47, or, after taking into consideration the economic effects of controlled and uncontrolled rents, to allow all assessable property values to remain at uniform levels corresponding to the said 1940 revaluation of improvements.” It is further alleged that “the method and scheme adopted and followed by said assessor in assessing” multiple-dwelling properties for 1946 were illegal in that:

1. The assessor arbitrarily allocated all alleged increases in the values of multiple-dwelling properties “to the improvements on the respective properties, and no part . . . was allocated to the lands underlying said improvements. That the assessor’s said action was taken ... by him in ... an effort to obviate the necessity for increasing the value of the land underlying single-family dwellings and vacant lots adjacent thereto”, in the county.
2. “That in furtherance of said purpose said assessor refrained designedly from increasing the assessable value of the lands . . . underlying single unit dwellings and vacant lots intermingled with such . . . dwellings, except in a very few areas where . . . special local conditions . . . made it appear incumbent ... to allocate some increase to [such] . . . lands.”
3. That for the taxable year 1946, “there were in the County . . . more than 650,000 single-family dwellings, approximately 180,000 of which were occupied by rent-paying tenants, which brought said dwellings in direct competition with the [multiple-dwelling] properties represented herein by petitioner. But said assessor, acting arbitrarily ... refrained from making any increase in the value for tax pur *127 poses of the . . . [single-unit dwelling] improvements. . . . That the . . . single unit dwellings are as a rule located in the same Mock or in the immediate vicinity of the properties represented herein by petitioner.”
4. That the block in which petitioner’s real property is situated contains a total of eighteen lots; that of such lots one is vacant, two are improved with apartment houses (one of which is petitioner’s property here involved), one is improved with a home for children, one with a finance office, two with dwellings used for churches, and the remainder with one-family dwellings; that no increases in the assessed valuations of any of the eighteen lots were made in 1946; that increases in the valuations of improvements upon such lots were made in the following three instances only: The two apartment house improvements were increased 35 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively, over 1945; and the home for children was increased approximately 12½ per cent over 1945.

Petitioner alleges further that on July 29, 1946—the final day of the hearing before the board—an offer was made to prove that the assessor “had been for some time and was then . . . entering upon the map books of his office increases in assessment valuations of single-family dwelling properties for the year 1947 ranging from 21% to 83%,” but that the board refused the offer of proof.

Respondents (the board of supervisors and the assessor of Los Angeles County) deny the occurrence of a general increase in either market value or selling price of real property during the taxable years 1940 through 1946, and allege “that some property had decreased in price and value, some property, including the property of petitioners, had increased both in price and value and that a substantial part of the said property, including most single family dwelling improvements, had increased in price but had not increased in value due to the fact that such increase in price represented a bonus or premium paid by purchasers for shelter and that as of the [taxable year 1946] . . . there was no substantial evidence that such increases in prices represented any increase in market value, and any increases placed on such property . . . would have been speculative.” They further allege that in determining values both the assessor and the board considered, among other factors, those of costs of labor and materials, the economic effects of controlled and uncontrolled *128

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. County of Ventura
California Court of Appeal, 2025
Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. County of Napa
California Court of Appeal, 2025
Untitled California Attorney General Opinion
California Attorney General Reports, 1999
Opinion No. (1999)
California Attorney General Reports, 1999
Mission Housing Development Co. v. City & County of San Francisco
59 Cal. App. 4th 55 (California Court of Appeal, 1997)
City of Rancho Cucamonga v. MacKzum
228 Cal. App. 3d 929 (California Court of Appeal, 1991)
Lilli Ann Corp. v. City & County of San Francisco
70 Cal. App. 3d 162 (California Court of Appeal, 1977)
Domenghini v. County of San Luis Obispo
40 Cal. App. 3d 689 (California Court of Appeal, 1974)
County of Sacramento v. Assessment Appeals Board No. 2
32 Cal. App. 3d 654 (California Court of Appeal, 1973)
Tivens v. Assessment Appeals Board
31 Cal. App. 3d 945 (California Court of Appeal, 1973)
Schwarz v. County of Marin
271 Cal. App. 2d 120 (California Court of Appeal, 1969)
DeLucia v. County of Merced
257 Cal. App. 2d 620 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
Jones Lumber Co. v. Del Norte County
251 Cal. App. 2d 645 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
Michels v. Watson
229 Cal. App. 2d 404 (California Court of Appeal, 1964)
Michael Todd Co. v. County of Los Angeles
371 P.2d 340 (California Supreme Court, 1962)
A. F. Gilmore Co. v. County of Los Angeles
186 Cal. App. 2d 471 (California Court of Appeal, 1960)
Crothers v. County of Santa Cruz
311 P.2d 557 (California Court of Appeal, 1957)
De Luz Homes, Inc. v. County of San Diego
290 P.2d 544 (California Supreme Court, 1955)
Anderson's Red & White Store v. Kootenai County
215 P.2d 815 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1950)
Eisley v. Mohan
192 P.2d 5 (California Supreme Court, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
180 P.2d 676, 30 Cal. 2d 124, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclelland-v-board-of-supervisors-cal-1947.