Non-Property Owners Can Sue Over Government Waste, Court Rules

CALIFORNIA - The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a person doesn't have to pay property taxes in order to file a taxpayer's lawsuit accusing a city or county of waste or illegal spending of public funds.

The high court's seven justices said unanimously that a 1909 law permitting taxpayer's lawsuits should be interpreted broadly to allow payment of other types of taxes to qualify a person as a plaintiff. The law has "broad remedial purposes," the court said in an opinion written by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar.

"Limiting individual plaintiffs' use of the statute to those who pay property taxes is simply incompatible with the recognized need to construe the statute broadly," Cuellar wrote.

But the panel did not define what types of taxes would meet the requirements. Instead, it sent the case back to lower courts for further proceedings.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by former San Rafael resident Cherrity Weatherford, who lived in a rented apartment and who sought to challenge Marin County over its policy on impounded vehicles. Weatherford, who has now moved to Washington state, claimed in her 2013 lawsuit that impounding vehicles without notice violated the state and federal constitutions. She said she paid sales tax, gasoline tax, water and
sewage fees and other taxes and fees.

She appealed to the state high court after a Marin County Superior Court judge and a state appeals court said taxpayer's lawsuits were limited to people who paid or were liable to pay property tax.

The law allows a citizen resident to sue a city or county for alleged illegal expenditure or waste of funds if the citizen "is assessed for and is liable to pay, or…has paid, a tax therein."

Her lawyer, Mark Clausen, said he had hoped the court would define more specifically which taxes would qualify a person as a plaintiff. "The court left so much up in the air. Both sides were anxious for clarity," He said.

In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye urged the Legislature to clarify the criteria for a taxpayer's lawsuit. "The archaic language of (the law) has not evolved alongside the increasing complexities concerning how residents are taxed and how those proceeds fund local government entities," she wrote.

In a second concurring opinion, Justice Leondra Kruger said it was not clear whether the word "therein" in the law means the relevant taxes paid directly to a city or county, or whether it means a taxpayer must merely be
physically located in a city or county when paying state or local taxes that benefit a jurisdiction.

Clausen said he hopes the Legislature will respond to the chief justice's request. If that does not happen, the next step would be for a Marin County Superior Court judge to determine whether Weatherford has standing to pursue the lawsuit since she has moved out of state.

Then, the trial judge would decide which types of taxes qualify, and that decision could be appealed.

A representative of the Marin County Counsel's Office was not immediately available for comment.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock

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