Savings & Loan Society v. Austin

46 Cal. 415
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1873
DocketNo. 3,729
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 46 Cal. 415 (Savings & Loan Society v. Austin) 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
Savings & Loan Society v. Austin, 46 Cal. 415 (Cal. 1873).

Opinions

By the Court, Crockett, J.:

In these cases, the defendant, who is Tax Collector for the City and County of San Francisco, appeals from an order refusing to dissolve an injunction obtained by the plaintiffs, enjoining the defendant from the collection of certain State and county taxes, assessed to the plaintiffs for the current fiscal year. The validity of these assessments is assailed on the several grounds to be hereafter noticed; one of which involves the question of the legality of the entire assessment of taxes for State purposes for the current fiscal year. If this should be decided for the plaintiffs, it may be unnecessary to determine the other questions discussed by counsel; and it will, therefore, be first considered.

The Political Code, adopted at the last session of the Legislature, establishes a State Board of Equalization, whose powers and duties are minutely prescribed. As its title imports, the purpose for which the Board was established, was to equalize the, assessment of taxes in the several counties, so as to cause them to approximate as nearly as possible to the equality and uniformity enjoined by the Constitution. It had become apparent in this, as in many other of the States, that when the value of property for the purposes of taxation was to be ascertained and finally determined by the local Assessors, subject only to a limited control by the County Boards of Supervisors, the grossest inequality frequently existed in the valuations in different counties, [474]*474whereby the requirement of the Constitution that “taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State ” was practically abrogated. As was observed by Chief Justice Breeze in People v. Salomon, 46 Ill. 337, “the small proportion which the actual revenue of the State bore to the real value of the property of the State, under the operation of laws, which, pretending to carry out the behests of the Constitution, that all taxes should be levied by valuation, so that every person and corporation should pay a tax in proportion to the value of his or her property, to be ascertained by some person or persons to be elected or appointed in such manner as the General Assembly might direct, created widespread alarm and dissatisfaction, rendering it an absolute necessity that some effective mode should be devised, by which this constitutional provision might be carried out in its true spirit.”

It was to remedy this great evil, that the State Board of Equalization was established; and on which is devolved the duty of supervising the assessments in the several counties, so as to approximate as nearly as possible to equality and uniformity in the imposition of the burden of taxation upon the property of the citizen in proportion to its value. The dominant idea of the Constitution on the subject of taxation is, first, that it “shall be equal and uniform throughout the State;” and second, that “all property in the State shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law; ” and, as a part of the system for producing equality and uniformity, it provides that “Assessors and Collectors of town, county, and State taxes, shall be elected by the qualified electors of the district, county, or town in which the property taxed for State, county, or town purposes is situated.” The argument for the plaintiffs is, that at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the term “Assessor” had a definite and well understood meaning, importing that he is an officer appointed or elected to ascertain and determine [475]*475the value of property for the purposes of taxation; and that in requiring such an officer to be elected in each ‘ ‘ district, county, or town in which the property taxed for State, county, or town purposes is situated,” the inference is necessarily implied, not only that he is to make the valuation, but that, when made, his determination as to the value is final; and that the valuation cannot be changed, altered, or in any respect modified, unless possibly by some superior Board or officer, to be elected for that purpose by the electors of that district, county, or town. In support of this view, we are referred to the fact that this provision is peculiar to our Constitution; and, it is claimed, was inserted ex industria in deference to the wishes of the native Californians, who were then the proprietors of large landed estates, and were apprehensive that unless the valuation for taxing purposes should be made by local Assessors, to be elected by the people of the district, the burdens of taxation might be imposed chiefly on their lands and herds, to the exclusion of other property.

Whatever weight may be due to this argument, it can hardly be deemed of such conclusive force as to preclude an examination of other provisions of the Constitution in order to determine whether the construction now contended for would not or might not be subversive of one of its fundamental principles. As already stated, the governing rule ordained by the Constitution—the central idea which pervades that instrument in respect to taxation—is that it shall be equal and uniform, and that property shall be taxed in proportion to its value.

As one of the necessary steps towards ascertaining its value, local Assessors must be elected, who shall make the primary valuation. But there is nothing in the instrument to indicate that this valuation was intended to be final. On the contrary, it is expressly provided that the valuation is to be ascertained “as directed by law”—which is an explicit [476]*476recognition of the power of the Legislature to provide appropriate methods for ascertaining the value, subject only to the limitation that the primary valuation shall be made by local Assessors to be elected by the people of the district. It may be further observed that, when the Constitution was adopted, the term “Assessor ” was not understood as defining an officer whose valuations were to be necessarily final. On the contrary, from the earliest period in our American jurisprudence, Assessors had been employed in almost every State for the purpose of making the primary valuation of property for taxation, and in none of them, so far as we are advised, was this valuation final, but was subject to correction and alteration by some supervisory Board or officer. In employing the term “Assessor” the framers of the Constitution must be understood to have used it in this its popular sense. We are, therefore, of opinion that it is competent for the Legislature to provide appropriate methods for equalizing assessments in the several counties.

2. But the validity of the assessments now under consideration is assailed on the further ground that by section three thousand six hundred and ninety-six of the Political Code the Legislature delegated to the State Board of Equalization the power to fix the rate of taxation, and it is claimed that the act is, pro tanto, unconstitutional and void. That section is in these words:

“At the same time the Board must determine and transmit to the Board of Supervisors of each county the rate of the State tax to be levied and collected, which, after allowing for delinquency in the collections of taxes, must be sufficient to' raise the specific amount of revenue directed to be raised by the Legislature for State purposes.”

We do not understand it to be seriously contended that if the Legislature had authorized the Board, on ascertaining the total value of the taxable property in the State in the [477]

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Bluebook (online)
46 Cal. 415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savings-loan-society-v-austin-cal-1873.