Cannon Mfg. Co. v. Cabarrus County Com'rs

• Citation: 112 S.E. 250,183 N.C. 553
• Decision Date: 24 May 1922
• Docket Number: 474.
• Parties: CANNON MFG. CO. ET AL. v. CABARRUS COUNTY COM'RS ET AL.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

112 S.E. 250

183 N.C. 553

CANNON MFG. CO. ET AL. v. CABARRUS COUNTY COM'RS ET AL.

No. 474.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

May 24, 1922

Appeal from Superior Court, Cabarrus County; McElroy, Judge.

Suit by the Cannon Manufacturing Company and others against Commissioners of Cabarrus County and another. From judgment for plaintiffs, defendants appeal. Reversed.

This is an action brought by the plaintiffs, the four Cannon Cotton Mill Companies, for a restraining order and permanent injunction against the defendants to restrain and prevent them from collecting certain taxes which were levied by the board of commissioners of Cabarrus county at their meeting on September 3, 1920, for the year 1920 against the property of the plaintiffs, and duly certified to the defendant, sheriff and tax collector about October 1, 1920.

The ground on which the plaintiffs ask this restraint is an alleged order of the Corporation Commission of January 4 1921, reducing the amount set out by the order of the county commissioners at their regular meeting in September, 1920 and stated in the tax list to be collected upon the property of the plaintiffs.

The defense set up by the county commissioners and the sheriff and tax collector is that, as appears by the record, the amount ascertained and assessed against the plaintiffs' 4 mills on May 1, 1919, was $19,480,308; that from this valuation the plaintiffs appealed, and that the State Tax Commission authorized and instructed the local authorities of Cabarrus to reduce said valuation of the 4 mills to $16,961,308; that subsequently the State Tax Commission, to complete its work before it made its report to the Governor as required by chapter 84, Laws 1919, called the county supervisor and the county board of appraisers and review to Raleigh for further consultation and conference with the State Tax Commission, and as a final concession and settlement of the valuation of the property in Cabarrus county authorized the county supervisor of said county in making his final report to allow a further reduction of $3,000,000 to "cover any variations that might arise," and this was done as shown at bottom of page 51 of the record in this case, and that all the said $3,000,000 was apportioned solely and entirely to these plaintiffs reducing the valuation of their combined property, as the defendants claim, to $13,961,308 (no part of said $3,000,000 reduction having been apportioned to any other mill owner or any other taxpayer in said county), and this amount was assessed by the defendants, county commissioners, as the basis calculated by them of the tax to be collected on the plaintiffs' mills for the fiscal year 1920, and the tax list so calculated was placed in the hands of the sheriff for collection, and upon which the county is seeking to recover the taxes which the plaintiffs are endeavoring to restrain.

On August 10, 1920, the Legislature met in extra session at the call of the Governor, and at that date, in its final Report on Valuation, which the Governor transmitted to the General Assembly, the Tax Commission on page 1 uses these words:

"We have the honor to report the successful completion of this work and present herewith the tabulated result."

On page 4 the Commission says:

"We are assured that such values have been made as will place upon these industries a fair share of the public burden, and certainly it will be more equally distributed among them than under the former methods of valuation. The work in this line was in the nature of assistance to the local boards by whom the final valuations were made"

--and at its conclusion they express their "feeling of relief that the arduous task is complete." In this report, which the Legislature adopted, the taxable value of the property in Cabarrus is stated to be $49,473,505.

In section 1, c. 1, Laws Extra Session 1920, ratified August 26, the General Assembly enacted:

"The assessment or valuation of property, made under provisions of chapter eighty-four * * * Laws of Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen, is hereby approved by the General Assembly and adopted as the basis for the levy of tax rates by the state and by all subdivisions of the state for which taxes are levied for the year nineteen hundred and twenty."

And in section 5 of said chapter authority is given and provision made for the boards of commissioners of the various counties of the state to levy taxes for the various counties in conformity with this valuation for the year 1920. It appears from the record that on August 30, 1920, the certificate from the State Tax Commission of said valuation for the county had been received, and at the regular meeting of the defendants the county commissioners, September 3, in accordance with the said act of the Legislature, the assessment was made out against each taxpayer, and about October 1, this tax list was placed in the hands of the sheriff, and he was proceeding in the exercise of his duties to collect the taxes so assessed and levied.

The plaintiffs sought to enjoin the collection of $22,342.17 of the taxes charged against them on...