L. B. Foster Co. v. County of Los Angeles

Plaintiff instituted this action seeking a refund of property taxes paid under protest. The taxes were paid pursuant to combined escaped and penal assessments made by the county assessor for the tax years beginning in 1963 and 1964. The penal assessments were imposed upon the determination of the assessor that plaintiff had misrepresented and underreported the costs of its inventories for those years. The penal portion of each assessment was set at 100 percent of the size of each escaped assessment, and thus represented 50 percent of the total escaped-penal assessment. The superior court…