People's Church of San Fernando Valley v. Los Angeles County

• Decision Date: 24 April 1957
• Citation: 311 P.2d 540,48 Cal.2d 899
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE'S CHURCH of SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, Inc., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, California; City of Los Angeles, California; H. L. Byram, County Tax Collector, Defendants and Appellants. L. A. 23790.

Page 540

311 P.2d 540

48 Cal.2d 899

The PEOPLE'S CHURCH of SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, Inc., Plaintiff and Respondent, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, California; City of Los Angeles, California; H. L. Byram, County Tax Collector, Defendants and Appellants.

L. A. 23790.

Supreme Court of California, In Bank.

April 24, 1957.

Rehearing Denied May 22, 1957.

Harold W. Kennedy, County Counsel, Gordon Boller, Asst. County Counsel, Alfred C. DeFlon, Deputy County Counsel, Roger Arnebergh, City Atty., and Spencer L. Halverson, Deputy City Atty., Los Angeles, for appellants.

A. L. Wirin and Hugh R. Manes, Los Angeles, for respondent.

Beardsley, Hufstedler & Kemble, Charles E. Beardsley, Shirley M. Hufstedler, Seth M. Hufstedler, Los Angeles, Morris E. Cohn, Beverly Hills, and Richard W. Petherbridge, El Centro, as amici curiae on behalf of respondent.

SHENK, Justice.

This is an appeal by the defendants from a judgment for the plaintiff in an action to recover taxes paid under protest and for declaratory relief.

The plaintiff is a church organization owning real property within the jurisdiction of and subject to taxation by the County and City of Los Angeles. Within the time prescribed by law for the tax year 1954-1955 the plaintiff filed a property statement and an application for the tax exemption authorized by section 1 1/2 of article XIII of the Constitution. The application was made on the regular affidavit form provided by taxing officials of the defendant county. Among other things the form provided for a statement under oath that the applicant did not advocate the violent overthrow of the local or federal government nor the support of a foreign government in the event of hostilities. The oath is required by the provisions of section 32 of the Revenue and Taxation Code adopted in 1953 to implement section 19 of article XX of the Constitution. The plaintiff refused to execute the oath and its property was assessed in the same manner as non-exempt property. The plaintiff paid the first installment of its taxes under protest, and commenced this action to recover the same.

The plaintiff contends that both section 19 of article XX of the Constitution and section 32 of the Revenue and Taxation Code are invalid for the reasons urged by the plaintiff in the case of The First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. County of Los Angeles, Cal., 311 P.2d 508. The trial court properly concluded that section 19 of article XX of the state Constitution did not violate any provision of the federal Constitution, but held that the application for exemption was improperly denied because section 32 of the Revenue and Taxation Code was invalid. Its decision followed from its conclusion that the Legislature, in enacting that section, had no authority to exclude householders from the requirements of making the oath in order to qualify for a tax exemption nor to limit that section to claims for exemption from property taxes only.

It was held in The First Unitarian Church case that section 32 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is a reasonable regulation provided by the Legislature in...