Clearwater Timber Co. v. Nez Perce County

• Decision Date: 01 July 1907
• Docket Number: 362.
• Citation: 155 F. 633
• Parties: CLEARWATER TIMBER CO. v. NEZ PERCE COUNTY.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Idaho

155 F. 633

CLEARWATER TIMBER CO. v. NEZ PERCE COUNTY.

No. 362.

United States Circuit Court, D. Idaho, Northern Division.

July 1, 1907

James E. Babb and Stiles W. Burr, for complainant.

Daniel Needham and B. S. Crow, for defendant.

DIETRICH District Judge.

The bill of complaint in this suit was filed in this court January 9, 1906, the same date on which the bill in Clearwater Timber Co. v. Shoshone County, 155 F 612, and others, in which a decision has just been rendered was filed.

The suit was brought to enjoin the defendant county and its officers from enforcing the payment of taxes levied for the year 1905 upon the lands described in the bill against Shoshone county; the territory embracing the same having during the latter part of 1904, by proper proceedings, been cut off from Shoshone county and annexed to Nez Perce county so that if the lands were assessable at all during the year 1905 they were assessable in Nez Perce county. Excepting the year for which the taxes were levied, the bill states substantially the same facts as are set forth in the bill in the Shoshone County Case. The mode of assessment, however, was different; for, instead of describing and valuing all of the lands aggregating 45,000 acres, as a unit, as was done in Shoshone county, the officers of Nez Perce county divided the lands into 15 groups, and each group was taken as a unit, and valued as such, and after delinquency and advertisement each group was sold as a unit and certificate of sale therefor was by the assessor and tax collector issued to Nez Perce county, the purchaser.

After the bill was filed practically the same proceedings were taken as in the Shoshone County Case. The answer does not make as many admissions as were made in the other case, and, in addition to the denials, some facts are pleaded by way of estoppel. The affirmative allegations in this regard are that in the year 1901 the Northern Pacific Railway Company executed and delivered to the plaintiff a deed purporting to convey to the plaintiff all of the lands in question, and thereafter and prior to January 1, 1905, the plaintiff caused this deed to be recorded in the office of the county recorder of Shoshone county, and thereafter the record of this deed together with other records of Shoshone county was transcribed and became a part of the records of Nez Perce county under the provisions of the act of the Legislature of the state of Idaho, cutting off a part of Shoshone county and annexing the same to Nez Perce county, that the defendant county's assessor found said deed of record, and that thereupon he assessed the land therein described to the plaintiff; and it is claimed by the defendant that the execution and delivery of said deed to the plaintiff, and the placing of the same upon record, constituted such conduct upon its part as to estop it from denying that the lands were, at the time of the recording of the deed, the property of the plaintiff, and that the conclusive presumption arises from the acceptance and the recording of said deed, that the property therein described both equitably and legally belonged to the plaintiff. It is not alleged that the defendant county or any of its officers were misled by the deed or the record thereof; or that the plaintiff otherwise represented to the defendant county or its officers that it was the owner of the property; or that, under the law, it made or delivered to the assessor and tax collector a statement of the property owned or claimed by it in Nez Perce county, containing a description of or referring to any of these lands; nor is it alleged that the defendant county and its officers were not at all times fully cognizant of the status of the title to these lands.

The case has been submitted upon substantially the same proofs, stipulations, and orders as in the suit against Shoshone county, and I must reach the same conclusion, unless the defense of estoppel which was not specifically pleaded in the other case is well founded; or unless government lands in Idaho, the title to which passes after the second Monday in January of a given year, are assessable for taxes during and for that year, it appearing that some of the selections in question were approved by the officers of the land department during the year 1905 and after the second Monday of January in that year.

As is stated in the opinion rendered in the Shoshone County Case, the first group of lands described in the complaint and selected under the act of March 2, 1899, was approved by the Secretary of the Interior on June 7, 1905. No other selection under that act was approved until the following year. The selections made under the act of June 4, 1897, were approved, one on December 6, 1905, one on April 21, 1905, and the third one on May 21, 1905.

In support of their plea of estoppel the proof offered upon behalf of the defendants is in strict accord with the allegations of fact made in the answer, and it appears therefrom that the railway company executed and delivered to the plaintiff in 1901 an instrument, substantially as alleged, and the same was placed of record in the office of the county recorder of Shoshone county and thereafter was transcribed and became a part of the records of Nez Perce county. Upon the other hand, evidence introduced upon behalf of the plaintiff discloses the fact that early in the year 1905 the plaintiff and its officers were cognizant of the actual status of the title to the lands in controversy; and, further, that in a proceeding taken in connection with a controversy between Shoshone county and Nez Perce county, relative to the adjustment of the accounts and property rights of said counties, in pursuance of the act of the Legislature annexing a portion of Shoshone county to Nez Perce county, the defendant county set forth the status of the title to these lands, and asserted that the same, during the year 1903, were the property of the United States, and were not assessable, and that the assessment and the sale thereof for delinquent taxes by Shoshone county were void and of no effect; and, indeed, it is conclusively shown that the defendant county and its officers were, in the early part of the year 1905, not only aware of the status of the title to these lands, but also knew of the contention of the plaintiff that they were not subject to taxation at that time.

It seems that in some jurisdictions the general doctrine of estoppel has been applied in cases where the taxpayer has returned to the assessor for the purpose of assessment or taxation property which does not belong to him; and that appears to be the rule adopted by the Supreme Court of Idaho as disclosed in the case of Inland Lumber & Timber Co. v. Thompson, 11 Idaho, 508, 83 P. 933. In that case lands which had been selected under the act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat. 11, c. 2), but the selection of which had not been approved, were assessed by the county assessor of Kootenai county, and the plaintiff brought an action to annul and set aside the assessment. The court denied the relief prayed for, but did not, as I construe the decision, pass upon the general question as to whether or not lands in that condition are assessable. It bases its conclusion solely upon the ground that the plaintiff had returned to the assessor as a part of its taxable property in that county the lands in question. The court states that there is a diversity of opinion, but concludes that the general trend of authority is 'to hold the taxpayer estopped from denying his ownership of the property listed in his statement, unless he shows that the same was done through fraud, accident, or mistake. ' This Idaho case is the only one cited by counsel for the defendants in support of this defense; and complainant contends that the decision is not in harmony with the weight of authority and especially with the decisions of the federal courts. But it is unnecessary, in this case, to determine upon which side the weight of authority lies, or what the doctrine of the federal courts is. It is admitted that the estoppel which is applied against the taxpayer by the decisions announcing that view is a wide departure from and lacks some of the elements...