Maish v. Territory of Arizona
| Decision Date | 21 December 1896 |
| Docket Number | No. 89,89 |
| Citation | 17 S.Ct. 193,164 U.S. 599,41 L.Ed. 567 |
| Parties | MAISH et al. v. TERRITORY OF ARIZONA |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This was a suit commenced in the district court of the First judicial district of the territory of Arizona, sitting in and for the county of Pima, to recover delinquent taxes. Several parties were included as defendants. A decree was rendered May 7, 1892, establishing the taxes and foreclosing the tax liens. The appellants, after a motion for a new trial, carried the case to the supreme court of the territory, by which, on January 17, 1894, the decree was affirmed (37 Pac. 370), and thereupon an appeal was taken to this court.
These judicial proceedings to collect delinquent taxes were authorized by statute. Rev. St. Ariz. 1887, §§ 2684-2688. The first of these sections provides that the tax collector, on the third Monday of December in each year, shall prepare and file in the office of the county treasurer a list of delinquent taxes. Section 2685 requires him, on or before the first Monday in February thereafter, to publish such delinquent tax list, with a notice that he will apply to the district court of the country at the next ensuing term thereof for judgment. Section 2686 directs the district attorney, upon the completion of the publication, to file a complaint in the district court setting forth the fact of the delinquent list, its publication and the notice, and praying for judgment and decree against the property described in said list for the taxes assessed thereon. It further provides:
Section 2687 contains certain general provisions in reference to the proceedings. Section 2688 is as follows:
Charles W. Wright, for appellants.
Wm. H. Barnes, for appellee.
Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The statute, as will be seen, authorizes any one interested in any of the property to defend against the taxes sought to be charged thereon,' 'specifying in writing, the particular cause of objection,' and requires the court, when such defense is made, to 'hear and determine the matter in a summary manner, without pleadings,' and to 'pronounce judgment as the right of the case may be.' The statute also provides that the delinquent tax list is prima facie evidence that the 'taxes therein are due against the property.'
The appellants filed ten objections to the taxes charged against their property, one of which was that 'said delinquent list as published and filed herein is not a copy of the original.' It appears from the bill of exceptions that on the hearing before the court the printed copy of the delinquent list, and not that filed in the office of the county treasurer, was offered and received in evidence. To the introduction of this printed copy appellants made several objections, but not that the original was the best evidence, or should be first offered, or that the printed list was not an exact copy of the original. It would seem from the findings, and the rulings made by the trial court, as well as from the motion for a new trial, that the published delinquent list was treated as though it were the original; and that in the supreme court of the territory was the question for the first time distinctly made that no judgment could be rendered except upon the evidence furnished by the original list. Be that as it may, and conceding, without deciding, that properly, in an action like this, the original list should be offered in evidence, nevertheless we are of opinion that the appellants cannot now take advantage of this. They did not, in their objections, point out wherein the delinquent list was incorrectly published, and they made no objection to the admission in evidence of such published list on the ground that the original had not first been offered, or that the published list was different from the original. It might be that in the description of other property, or the taxes charged thereon, there were such mistakes as to defeat the proceedings as to such property, or in reference to their own property and the taxes charged thereon, that there was some trifling inaccuracy so as to make it true that the published list was not a copy of the original; but it would not follow therefrom that they were entitled to a judgment. 'De minimis non curat lex' might uphold the publication. As they were called upon in the challenge of these taxes to point out specifically their objections, and as they did not show wherein the published list differed from the original, we cannot assume that the variance, if any there were, was sufficient to affect their substantial rights. While, in a general sense, it may be true that in such a proceeding the territory is the plaintiff, and is called upon to prove its case, yet the presumptions which, by the statute, attach to the regularity of the proceedings, and the duty cast upon the objectors to specifically point out the defects, forbid our disturbing the judgment upon such technical ground,—one apparently an afterthough, and not affecting the substantial rights of the appellants.
Again, it is insisted that the court had lost its power to enter judgment by reason of lapse of time. The facts upon which this contention is based are these: Section 2685, which provides for a publication of the delinquent list, requires that the collector append to and publish with the list, in addition to the notice of application for judgment, a notice that on the Monday next succeeding the day fixed by law for the commencement of the term of the district court the property will be sold. Section 2690 directs the clerk of the district court to give a duly-certified copy of the judgment to the tax collector as the process under which the property is to be sold. Section 2693 requires the collector to attend on the day named in the notice, expose the property for sale, and continue the sale from day to day until all the property is sold, completing the sale within 20 days from the commencement thereof. Section 2687 makes special provisions for action by the court at an ensuing term, but is inapplicable to the questions here presented.
The court convened on the 14th of March. The notice published by the tax collector was that the sale would begin on the 20th of March. On March 15th a judgment was entered directing the sale on the 20th of all the property, to which no objection had been filed. As to those parties making objections (and included among them were the present appellants) the case was set down for hearing at a subsequent day, and a trial then had; but the judgment was not entered until the 7th day of May, 1892, and the order was to sell on the 13th day of June. Now, the argument is that, as this is a special statutory proceeding, its exact terms must be complied with, or the court loses its jurisdiction; the effect of which, as applied to a case like the present, would be that, if the objectors present questions which the court cannot conscientiously de- cide at the moment, and takes time for consideration, it may thereby lose its jurisdiction to act at all. We do not so understand the law. The district court is one of general jurisdiction. Section 2686 provides that upon the completion of the publication and the filing of the complaint the 'court shall acquire full and complete jurisdiction' over the property for all purposes whatever, necessary to enable it to carry out the purposes and intention of the act. The special provisions to which we have heretofore referred will doubtless guide in all cases in which no contest is made. They were evidently designed to secure prompt action on the part of the tax collector, as well as the court; and, if no objections be made, and a delinquent tax list, correct in form, and duly published, is presented, there need be no delay in entering the judgment. But, inasmuch as this proceeding is one is a court of general jurisdiction, it would require very precise and prohibitory language in the statute in order to withhold from that court the ordinary functions and powers of such a tribunal, among which is not only the right, but the duty, of giving such full consideration to all questions presented as its judgment determines is necessary. No such prohibitory language is found. The purposes and intention of the act are the collection of taxes, but only of such taxes as ought to be collected, and judicial determination is invoked to determine what taxes are justly due; and that the court takes time for the examination and consideration of this question does not oust it of jurisdiction.
Another objection is to the entry on this delinquent tax list of taxes for...
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