Commonwealth v. Holidy

• Decision Date: 24 January 1896
• Citation: 98 Ky. 616,33 S.W. 943
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. HOLIDY.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

33 S.W. 943

98 Ky. 616

COMMONWEALTH v. HOLIDY.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

January 24, 1896

Appeal from circuit court, Knott county.

"To be officially reported."

Louis Holidy was indicted by the commonwealth of Kentucky for a failure to comply with statutory provisions relating to listing and describing property for taxation. From a judgment on a demurrer to the indictment, the commonwealth appeals. Affirmed.

W. J Hendrick, for the Commonwealth.

PAYNTER J.

The indictment against the defendant was returned by the Knott county grand jury, and describes the offense with which he is charged as follows: "The said defendant on the 20th day of July, 1895, in the county and circuit aforesaid, failed to file a descriptive list of his land with the clerk of the Knott county court as required by law in such cases,-the said land owned by the said defendant lying and being in Knott county, Kentucky; he at the time being a nonresident of Knott county, Kentucky." The title of the act under which the indictment was found reads as follows: "An act to regulate and insure the assessment of property for taxation and the payment of taxes thereon, belonging to nonresidents of the counties in which the same is situated." Section 1: "That it shall be the duty of all persons owning any lands *** in any counties in this commonwealth other than the county in which they reside, or if they reside out of the state, to file a descriptive list with the clerk of the county court of the county in which said property is situated, under oath, *** on or before the fifteenth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, from which descriptive list or lists the assessor of the county in which the same is filed with list the same for taxes each year at its fair cash value, and any person failing to comply with the requirements of this act, for each of such failures shall be fined one hundred dollars and costs." Section 6: "This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the fifteenth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four." The act was approved March 19, 1894. While section 1 indicates that the list is to be filed on or before the 15th day of August, 1894, yet section 6 provides that the act shall not take effect until after that date. The act does not, in express terms, declare that for the years subsequent to August 15, 1894, nonresident owners of land etc., shall file such descriptive lists. However, the title of the act shows that it was to be a permanent statute, for the purpose of assessing and collecting taxes on certain property of nonresidents. The title of an act does not extend or restrain positive provisions of an act, when there is a conflict in the title and body of the act. Section 1 provides for the imposition of a fine on any person for failing to comply with the requirements of the act, "for each of such failures." This language supports the manifest purposes of the act, as shown by its title. The body of the act failing, in terms, to make it apply only to the year of 1894, we must conclude that it applies to the years subsequent to the time it took effect, and...