Board of Councilmen of City of Frankfort v. Stone

• Decision Date: 19 September 1900
• Citation: 58 S.W. 373
• Parties: BOARD OF COUNCILMEN OF CITY OF FRANKFORT v. STONE, Auditor, et al. [1]
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

58 S.W. 373

BOARD OF COUNCILMEN OF CITY OF FRANKFORT v. STONE, Auditor, et al. ^[1]

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

September 19, 1900

"Not to be officially reported."

Petition for rehearing. Denied.

HOBSON, J.

While mandamus does not lie to control the board in the exercise of a discretion vested in it by law, it may be used to require the performance by it of a plain ministerial duty. It is made the duty of the board to fix the value of the franchise of appellant. In determining what the value of the franchise is, the board exercises a discretion which cannot be controlled by mandamus; but, as the statute confers on the board no power to apportion the value of the franchise between different jurisdictions, it has no discretion as to this, and may be required by mandamus to report the valuation as fixed by it, and to refrain from exercising a power, not conferred on it by law, of apportioning the value so fixed by it between appellant and others. Adams v. Stephens, 88 Ky. 443, 11 S.W. 427; Howes v. Walker, 92 Ky. 258, 17 S.W. 576; Civ. Code Prac. § 477. The aim of the statute is to place corporations and individuals on the same footing. Ky. St. § 4086. The purpose of a franchise tax is to reach the intangible property of the corporation, and make it liable to taxation as like property of individuals. Personal property of an individual is ordinarily taxed in the jurisdiction of his residence, without regard to its situs. If an individual who resides in Frankfort owned appellee's franchise and property, he would have to pay appellant the tax in contest. Section 4082. The residence of a corporation is, for most legal purposes, where its chief office or place of business is; and, except where it is by law otherwise provided its franchise tax should be paid in that jurisdiction. Section 4081 must be read in connection with section 4079. Thus construed, it includes both foreign and domestic corporations of the classes named; for otherwise lines lying partly without the state would not be placed on the same footing as those wholly within the state. Petition overruled.

---------

Notes:

^[1] Reported by Edward W. Hines, Esq., of the Frankfort bar, and formerly state reporter.

---------