Smith v. Rackliffe

• Decision Date: 17 December 1897
• Docket Number: 11,915.
• Citation: 83 F. 983
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
• Parties: SMITH v. RACKLIFFE, State Treasurer.

83 F. 983

SMITH v. RACKLIFFE, State Treasurer.

No. 11,915.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. California.

December 17, 1897

C. N Sterry (E. S. Pillsbury, of counsel), for plaintiff.

W. F Fitzgerald, Cal. Atty. Gen., for defendant.

MORROW Circuit Judge.

This action was brought by the receiver of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company, under the provisions of section 3669 of the Political Code of this state, to recover of the state treasurer certain moneys paid by that company into the state treasury for taxes upon rolling stock operated by it within the state. A demurrer to the original complaint having been sustained by Judge McKenna (Reinhart v. McDonald, 76 F. 403) the complainant has filed an amended complaint, containing a formal substitution of parties, and some changes in the verbiage of the complaint, but no substantial change in the material allegations of the original complaint. It appears that the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company is a corporation organized and incorporated under the act of congress approved July 27, 1866, (14 Stat. 292). It had in operation, in 1893 a line of railroad from the city of Albuquerque, in the county of Bernalillo, in the territory of New Mexico, through the territory of Arizona, to The Needles, in the county of San Bernardino, state of California; thence to Mojave, in the county of Kern, in the same state. The home and situs of the rolling stock of the road was located at Albuquerque, N.M. The line of this road in the state of California from Mojave to The Needles, a distance of about 243 miles, was built and is owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. In August, 1894, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company agreed to sell this road from Mojave to The Needles to the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company. The sale was to be consummated whenever the Southern Pacific Railroad Company was able to make clear title to the line of railway discharged from certain liens. In the meantime, and until the consummation of the sale, and payment of the purchase price, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company leased this line of railway to the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company for a period of 30 years at an annual rental. The lease provided that the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company should promptly pay and discharge all taxes and assessments which should thereafter become due upon said property, or any part thereof, or might become in any wise due or owing in respect to the same. In the year 1893 the state board of equalization of this state assessed the franchise, roadway, roadbeds, rails, and rolling stock of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in the state of California, including the line of railroad from Mojave to The Needles, so leased to the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company, and which was, at that time, being operated by the last-named company, and did also demand and require of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company that it should make a return of all its personal property in the shape of rolling stock, etc., used in the operation of the line of road from Mojave to The Needles, leased from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and thereupon, and under protest, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company returned to the board of equalization that it had in operation 89 cars and locomotive engines, of the value of $56,810, which it had in use and operated at times along the line of said road, and thereupon the board of equalization assessed said rolling stock at a total valuation of $125,000, and...