In Hotel Casey Co. v. Ross, 343 Pa. 573, 23 A.2d 737 (1942), the Supreme Court reviewed an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County that quashed a writ of mandamus in a matter seeking to require the Board of Finance and Revenue to refund taxes paid for prior years under an erroneous interpretation of the taxing statute. The Supreme Court noted that the taxes were paid voluntarily, although they were not legally due under the law as declared in a recent earlier case of the Supreme Court. In the absence of any refunding statute, the common law rule was that taxes paid voluntarily and without protest cannot be recovered. The Supreme Court noted, however, that the General Assembly had passed certain statutes to address this type of situation. Relevant to the situation in Hotel Casey, the General Assembly enacted Section 503 of the Fiscal Code, which provided at the time, in part, that the Board of Finance and Revenue "shall have the power, and its duty shall be, (a) To hear and to determine any petition for the refund of taxes, license fees, penalties, fines, bonus, or other moneys paid to the Commonwealth and to which the Commonwealth is not rightfully or equitably entitled, and, upon the allowance of any such petition, to refund such taxes." Hotel Casey, 343 Pa. at 575, 23 A.2d at 739.