Clarke v. Ganz
| Decision Date | 30 March 1875 |
| Citation | 21 Minn. 387 |
| Parties | NEHEMIAH P. CLARKE & another <I>vs.</I> MATHIAS GANZ, County Treasurer, etc. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Cornell & Bradley, for appellants.
Peter Brick, for respondent.
This was a suit for an injunction to restrain the collection of a tax upon personal property, alleged to have been illegally assessed. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained in the court below. The principal point made against the complaint is that an injunction will not lie to restrain the collection of a tax upon personal property. The view that we take of this point renders it unnecessary to decide whether, in this instance, the tax was legally assessed. Upon the propriety of issuing injunctions in such cases, the general rule appears to be that equity will not interfere, merely because the tax is illegal and void, but there must be some special circumstances attending the threatened injury, to distinguish it from a mere trespass, and thus bring the case within some recognized head of equity jurisprudence; otherwise the party aggrieved will be left to his remedy at law. High on Injunctions, § 354 and note.
In some of the states, exceptions have been allowed to this rule. There is so much diversity in the decisions allowing these exceptions that it is hardly profitable to discuss them, especially as none of them have any principle of equity jurisprudence to sustain them.
To bring a threatened distraint of personal property by a tax-collector within the jurisdiction of courts of equity, it must appear, not only that the taking will be a trespass, but that the plaintiff will be without an adequate remedy at law, or that such remedy will be practically valueless; as where the collector is insolvent, or where a multiplicity of suits will be necessary to enforce it. And in the complaint traversable facts must be alleged, to show that such will be the result of the taking.
In this case, the complaint alleges that the collector threatens to, and, unless restrained by this court, is about to proceed to enforce the tax by a levy and sale of divers articles of plaintiffs' personal property at public auction, and then continues, "thereby subjecting the plaintiffs to great injury, costs and expense, and involving them in expensive and vexatious litigation and a multiplicity of suits, in order to keep...
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State v. Wood
...an adequate remedy at law, or that the injury cannot be compensated by an action for damages as such. 1 High, Inj. (3d Ed.) § 34; Clark v. Ganz, 21 Minn. 387. That a court of equity may enjoin upon some other ground is not the question now, but does this petition aver traversable facts suff......
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Verdin v. City of St. Louis
...of the threatened levy, remarking: "If such statements will make a case for an injunction, it can be made in every case." Clarke v. Ganz, 21 Minn. 387. A court of equity will deny an injunction to restrain the collection of taxes when the complainant has an adequate remedy at law, and, if h......
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State ex rel. Kenamore v. Wood
...at law, or that the injury can not be compensated by an action for damages as such. [1 High on Injunctions (3 Ed.), sec. 34; Clarke v. Ganz, 21 Minn. 387.] That court of equity may enjoin upon some other ground is not the question now, but does this petition aver traversable facts sufficien......
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Schaffner v. Young
...the general rule is that equity will not intervene in such cases. Upon this point, see Cooley, Tax'n, p. 772, and cases in note 2; Clarke v. Ganz, 21 Minn. 387; Society v. Austin, 46 Cal. 415 at 417. general rule is stated in 2 Dill Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.) § 924, as follows: "Equity will not, ......