# People ex rel. Pacific Mail Steamship Co. v. Board of Supervisors

> California Supreme Court · July 1, 1875 · 50 Cal. 282

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5438742

## Case

- **Full name:** THE PEOPLE ex rel. THE PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY v. THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
- **Court:** California Supreme Court
- **Decided:** July 1, 1875
- **Citations:** 50 Cal. 282; 1875 Cal. LEXIS 143
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Opinion of the court
- **Cited by:** 0 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5438742

## Opinion text

By the Court:
If the petition presented to the board is to be regarded as an application to reduce the valuation of the property assessed, the board, in refusing to accede to the prayer of the relator, did not exceed its jurisdiction. Its action was merely negative in its character. (C. P. R. R. Co. v. The Board of Equalization of Placer County, 43 Cal. 365 .) If, however, the petition is to be regarded as an application made to the board to strike the steamships in question from *284 the assessment list,"as not being proper subjects of taxation, it is clear that, had the board acceded to the petition, it would have exceeded its jurisdiction. (People v. Ashbury, 46 Cal. 523 .) In either view, therefore, no excess of jurisdiction appears, and in either view the writ must be dismissed. We have been urged by counsel to determine upon the merits of the question intended to be presented in the case, whether steamships registered in the port of New York, owned by a corporation created by the laws of the State of New York, and having its habitat and place of business there, are the- subject of taxation under the revenue laws of this State. But as under the views already announced the writ must be dismissed, the expression of an opinion by us upon the question referred to becomes unnecessary.
Writ dismissed.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5438742. Public record. Not legal advice.