City of Richmond v. Clifford
| Decision Date | 09 January 1914 |
| Docket Number | 22,537 |
| Citation | 103 N.E. 789,182 Ind. 17 |
| Parties | City of Richmond v. Clifford |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied May 26, 1914, Reported at: 182 Ind. 17 at 28.
From Hancock Circuit Court; Will M. Sparks, Special Judge.
Action by Fremont Clifford against the City of Richmond. From a judgment for plaintiff, the defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
Alonzo M. Gardner, Cook & Cook, Frederick G. White, Wilfred Jessup and William A. Bond, for appellant.
Sylvester Meek, Jackson & Sample and Reuben Conner, for appellee.
Myers J. Morris, J., did not participate in the decision in this cause.
This is an appeal from a judgment rendered against appellant in favor of appellee, upon a contract for searching for, discovering and reporting for extension upon its tax duplicate, alleged omitted taxes upon a percentage basis.
The errors assigned arise upon exceptions to the conclusions of law stated, upon the facts found, and in overruling the motion for a new trial. The findings of fact are in their material parts as follows: One Morrison was, from the year 1880, to the time of his death, in August, 1893, a resident of the city of Richmond, county of Wayne. From January 1 1884, to August 12, 1893, the date of his death, Morrison was the owner of 1,660 shares of the capital stock of the Morrison-Plummer Drug Company, a private corporation of the state of Illinois, and during all of that time was doing business in Chicago, Illinois. Said shares of stock were of the par value of $ 166,000. In each of said years, from 1884 to 1893 inclusive, said Morrison was, as such resident of the city of Richmond, assessed for taxation, and in each of said years signed and swore to an assessment list in the form prescribed by the statutes of Indiana; at no time during his life did said Morrison give any statement of his ownership of said stock in any assessment list of his property, neither was said stock nor any part thereof, by any officer, ever placed on the tax duplicates of Wayne County or of the city of Richmond, during the lifetime of Morrison; Morrison never paid any taxes to the city of Richmond on said stock in said corporation, during his lifetime. The value of said stock was $ 166,000 during all of said time said Morrison owned it. Morrison died testate, and one Hibbard was named in his will as executor thereof, and duly qualified and acted as executor of said will, and on October 29, 1893, duly filed with the clerk of the circuit court of Wayne County, an inventory and appraisement of the estate of said Morrison, and in said inventory, said stock in said drug company was duly inventoried and appraised at its par value, to wit, $ 166,000. On April 8, 1894, said executor made, signed and swore to an assessment list as such executor of said will before the township assessor in the city of Richmond, in which he wholly failed to list or report said stock in said corporation. On May 24, 1895, the said executor made, signed and swore to an assessment list before the township assessor in said city of Richmond, in which, in response to the interrogatory printed in said list, as follows: , he made the following answer: That at said time, said executor held said stock as such executor. That previous to July 1, 1897, said stock had never been assessed for taxation in the county of Wayne, nor in said city of Richmond, against said Morrison, his executors or legatees, nor did said stock prior to July 1, 1897, appear upon the tax duplicates of the county of, Wayne, or of said city, against said Morrison, or his executor or legatees, or heirs, or anyone else, and that prior to the first day of July, 1897, the appellant, the city of Richmond, had never collected any taxes on said stock. At a meeting of the common council of the city of Richmond, April 6, 1896, the committee on finance reported a proposal and contract from William G. Young, for the discovery of omitted city taxables, and recommended the acceptance thereof, as follows:
followed by a resolution of the council that the following contract in form be approved.
On June 2, 1896, Young assigned to the plaintiff, all his right, title and interest in said written contract, which assignment was endorsed on the margin of the record of said contract, in the records of defendant, in the office of its clerk in the words and figures as follows, to wit:
On April 15, 1897, the common council extended the contract with appellee for the period of one year from April 6, 1897. On June 12, 1897, plaintiff filed with the city clerk of appellant, and in the city clerk's office of the appellant, a written report or information, notifying said clerk and said city of Richmond in substance, that the said Morrison, a former resident of the city of Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, and his estate after his death, had owned and held during the years from 1884 to 1895, both inclusive $ 166,000 par value of the capital stock of the Morrison-Plummer Drug Company, a private corporation of the city of Chicago, state of Illinois; that said capital stock was subject to taxation by said city of Richmond for each and all of said years, and that said capital stock had not been assessed for taxation, and had been wholly omitted from the tax duplicates of the city for each and all of said years. On November 15, 1897, the common council passed a resolution compromising and settling the tax claim at the sum of $ 2,000 for all taxes against the Morrison property, pursuant to which action the city clerk extended taxes on the tax duplicate of the city apportioned to the various years from 1885 to 1895, both inclusive, in the aggregate sum of $ 2,000, which the executor in 1897 paid. In the year 1906, the clerk of said city ignored said pretended compromise settlement, and entered an additional assessment for taxation of said capital stock upon the tax duplicate of 1906, of said city, for each of said years from 1885 to 1895, both...
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