Collier v. Morrow

• Decision Date: 23 August 1892
• Citation: 15 S.E. 768,90 Ga. 148
• Parties: COLLIER v. MORROW, Sheriff, et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

15 S.E. 768

90 Ga. 148

COLLIER v. MORROW, Sheriff, et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia

August 23, 1892

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Persons selected, under section 840 of the Code, to do justice touching the true assessment of property for taxation in 1891, had power to fix the assessment at the true valuation of the property, whether that was less than the amount at which it had been returned by the taxpayer, or more than the amount at which it had been assessed by the receiver of tax returns, the scheme of the statute being not merely an arbitration, but a substitution of disinterested persons to ascertain true value, without reference to the estimate either of the taxpayer or the receiver.

2. A taxpayer having voluntarily invoked the benefit of the section of the Code above cited, by exercising the privilege of selecting on his part one of the disinterested persons, cannot complain that the mode of assessment to which he has thus resorted is unconstitutional because the statute fails to make any provision for notice or hearing, or for any other reason; and, inasmuch as the statute makes no such provision, the board of disinterested persons was not bound to give notice of the time and place of its meeting, nor to afford the taxpayer any opportunity to be heard, the statute contemplating that these persons should act upon their own knowledge of the property and opinion of its value, and not upon evidence, or the examination of witnesses.

Error from superior court, Fulton county; M. J. CLARKE, Judge.

Petition by George W. Collier against James W. Morrow, sheriff, and others, praying that on payment of a certain amount tendered a tax fi. fa. be quashed; that defendants be enjoined from demanding or enforcing any claim for a greater amount than that tendered; and that a temporary injunction be granted against the enforcement of the levy of the tax fi. fa. The temporary injunction was refused, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

Hillyer & Lee, for plaintiff in error.

W. S. Thomson, B. H. Hill, Sol. Gen. protem., and W. A. Little, Atty. Gen., for defendants in error.

PER CURIAM.

Judgment affirmed.