Ames v. People ex rel. Temple

• Decision Date: 08 February 1899
• Citation: 56 P. 656,26 Colo. 83
• Parties: AMES, County Assessor, v. PEOPLE ex rel. TEMPLE, Auditor of State.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

56 P. 656

26 Colo. 83

AMES, County Assessor, v. PEOPLE ex rel. TEMPLE, Auditor of State.

Supreme Court of Colorado

February 8, 1899

Error to district court, Arapahoe county.

Mandamus proceeding on the relation of George W. Temple, auditor of state, against Willard L. Ames, county assessor of Arapahoe county. Judgment for relator, and respondent brings error. Affirmed.

In 1891 the general assembly passed an act to provide for the better assessment and collection of revenue. See Sess. Laws 1891, p 290. Section 1 of the act makes it the duty of the state board of equalization to assess all the property in this state owned, used, or controlled by railway companies telegraph, telephone, and sleeping or other palace car companies, with a proviso that real estate owned by any railway company, and not used for the convenient and proper operation of its railways and improvements thereon, shall not be included in such assessments, but such real estate and the improvements thereon shall be assessed and taxed in the same manner as other real estate in the county where the same is situated. Section 2 of the act provides that the company through its proper officers, shall furnish the board with a statement, properly signed and verified, showing the number of miles of main track, which includes franchises, rights of way, bridges, etc., the number of miles of side and secondary tracks and turnouts, a description of all the real estate used, or necessary to be used, for the convenient and proper operation of the road, its depots, shops, and other buildings, a full list of rolling stock belonging to or operated by such railway company, and its tools, supplies and other personal property. The statement must contain also, such further information as the board of equalization may require. The board, so far as practicable, must make a personal inspection and examination of the property, in order to enable it to arrive at a fair and just valuation, which must be its full cash value; and in making the assessment is required to take into consideration all matters connected with the business of the corporation owning or operating this cass of property necessary to enable it to make a just and equitable assessment, and for that purpose may make all such inquiries and investigations as it may deem necessary. After making the assessment, the board is directed to transmit to the county clerk of each county through which the track of any railway company may run a statement showing the length of the main track, and the assessed value per mile of the same, as fixed by a pro rata distribution per mile of the assessed value of the whole property of such corporation. Section 3 provides that the board of county commissioners of each such county, on receipt of such statement, shall cause to be entered in its records an order declaring the length of the main track in each school district and in each municipal corporation within the county within or through which any railway line is located; also the amount of such assessment that is to be placed upon the tax roll for the benefit of such school district or municipal corporation, which amount shall be the assessed value of such railway as assessed by the state board, and returned to the clerk. The county clerk is to transmit a copy of the order to the county assessor, and the latter shall place such assessment upon the assessment roll of his county, subject to the same per centum of levy for different purposes as in the case of other property.

Such, in general, is the scheme provided for the assessment of railroad and kindred property. We need only consider the statute as applicable to railroad property, for it is conceded that, if the property of railroad companies may be lawfully assessed thereunder, so, also, may the property of the other enumerated corporations. Acting in pursuance of the authority conferred by the foregoing act, the state board of equalization for the year 1896 assessed all the property in the state of Colorado owned, used, or controlled by railway companies, save and except the real estate and improvements thereon not used for the convenient and proper operation of their railways. A strict compliance with all the provisions of the act relating to the mode of assessment was alleged in the petition. After the assessment was made, the state board transmitted to the county clerk of Arapahoe county the statement required of it, and the board of county commissioners entered in its proceedings the order which section 3 of the act enjoins, and the county clerk transmitted a copy of the order to the county assessor, the respondent below and plaintiff in error here; but the county assessor refused to place such assessment on the assessment roll of his county, as the act directs, and this petition in mandamus was brought by the state auditor, in behalf of the state board, to compel the assessor to do so.

In his return to the alternative writ the county assessor interposed the following as defenses: '(1) That the action of the state board of equalization in making the assessment under the act of the general assembly referred to in the petition is in conflict with section 8 of article 14 of the constitution, because the power to assess property is thereby exclusively vested in the various county assessors, and there is no power in the general assembly to provide by law for assessing property for purposes of taxation by any other person or board. The section reads as follows: 'There shall be elected in each county, on the first Tuesday in October, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and every alternate year forever thereafter, one county clerk, who shall be ex officio recorder of deeds and clerk of the board of county commissioners; one sheriff; one coroner; one treasurer, who shall be collector of taxes; one county superintendent of schools;one county surveyor; and one county assessor.' (2) That the duties of the state board are limited solely to adjusting and equalizing values, and to add to its powers that of fixing values the general assembly is forbidden by section 15 of article 10 of the constitution, which is as follows: 'There shall be a state board of equalization, consisting of the governor, state auditor, state treasurer, secretary of state, and attorney general; also in each county of this state, a county board of equalization, consisting of the board of county commissioners of said county. The duty of the state board of equalization shall be to adjust and equalize the valuation of real and personal property among the several counties of the state. The duty of the county board of equalization shall be to adjust and equalize the valuation of real and personal property within their respective counties. Each board shall also perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law.' (3) That under the provisions of the act a large portion of the property located within the territorial limits of municipal corporations in the state is exempted from taxation for municipal purposes, and that the act therein conflicts with that part of section 6 of article 10 of the constitution which is as follows: 'All laws exempting from taxation property other than that hereinbefore mentioned [in a prior section, and not including railroad property] shall be void.' (4) In so far as the act provides for the taxation of the property of corporations therein named in the several counties, school districts, municipal corporations, and other taxing districts of the state according to the length of the line of road within the territorial limits of such several taxing districts, regardless of the value of the property of the corporations within such territorial limits, the same is in conflict with section 10 of article 10 of the constitution, which is as follows: 'All corporations in this state, or doing business therein shall be subject to taxation for state, county, school, municipal, and other purposes, on the real and personal property owned or used by them within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.' (5) That the act providing for the taxation of 'localized property' according to the length of one part of such property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, rather than in accordance with the value of the property located within such limits, is not uniform with the law taxing other property therein according to its cash value, and is, therefore, in conflict with the provisions of that part of section 3 of article 10 of the constitution, generally known as the 'uniformity clause,' providing: 'All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws, which shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real and personal.''

The foregoing objections in the answer or return are subdivisions of what counsel call a 'special demurrer.' An additional objection is set up in the return, and designated as the 'third defense,' that the state board, in making its assessments, failed and neglected to value certain real estate situate in Arapahoe county, owned by the several railway companies owning property therein, and that by prorating the assessments of the railways upon the mileage basis prescribed in the act large amounts of property in Arapahoe county were exempted from the payment of county and city taxes, and that the board undervalued certain property therein. A fourth defense was that the respondent, as county assessor, himself had assessed the several railway corporations upon their property situate in Arapahoe county and that he did this, as was his duty to do, under the constitution and laws of the...