City of Los Angeles v. Clinton Merchandising Corp.

This case involves the narrow question of whether the City of Los Angeles in assessing defendant’s license taxes properly interpreted the term “gross receipts” to cover all of the amounts defendant handled rather than the gross amount it received for the services it rendered. The case presents the further question of whether the city properly assessed defendant as a “person . . . selling . . . goods . . . at wholesale.” For the reasons hereinafter set out we believe the city properly assessed the tax in the second, but not in the first, instance.

Defendant appeals from a judgment sustaining…