California Court of Appeal

Judgment ordering defendant-tax board to refund plaintiff company an amount it paid pursuant to former Revenue and Taxation Code section 17942 for the years 2001 through 2003, as well as a post-judgment award of over $200,000, are affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) section 17942 as applied to plaintiff violates the Commerce Clause because it is not fairly apportioned and the court properly denied defendant's request that it judicially reform former section 17942 by rewriting it to include an apportion mechanism; 2) neither federal due process nor any principle of California law requires defendant to refund the entire amount plaintiff paid; and 3) the refund should be limited to the amount plaintiff paid for the years in issue that exceeds the amount that it would have been assessed, without violating the Commerce Clause, using a method of fair apportionment.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/11/2008
• Published 08/11/2008

Judges

• STEIN, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Silverstein & Pomerantz, Amy L. Silverstein, Edwin P. Antolin, San Francisco, for Plaintiff and Respondent., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General of the State of California, Randall P. Borcherding, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Jeffrey Rich, Deputy Attorney General, Marguerite C. Stricklin, Deputy Attorney General, for Defendant and Respondent.