Crebbin v. Wever

• Decision Date: 06 May 1905
• Docket Number: 14,123
• Citation: 71 Kan. 445,80 P. 977
• Parties: ALFRED CREBBIN v. HENRY WEVER
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

80 P. 977

71 Kan. 445

ALFRED CREBBIN v. HENRY WEVER

No. 14,123

Supreme Court of Kansas

May 6, 1905

Decided January, 1905.

Error from Greeley district court; CHARLES E. LOBDELL, judge.

Judgment affirmed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. TAXATION--County Owing State--Levy Not Excessive. The placing on the tax-rolls by the county clerk, in any year, of a sum of money to be raised for state purposes in addition to the regular levy for state purposes will not be construed to make the levy excessive when such sum is insufficient to meet the amount in which the county is already delinquent to the state.

2. PRACTICE, SUPREME COURT -- Tax Deed -- Construction of Pleadings. Legal conclusions of invalidity, illegality and non-compliance with the law in a pleading attacking a tax deed will be construed to relate to defects concerning which specific allegations of fact are made.

W. M Glenn, for plaintiff in error.

D. R. Beckstrom, for defendant in error.

BURCH J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

BURCH, J.:

The petition filed in the district court is in the ordinary form for ejectment. The answer pleaded a tax deed. The reply, which was unverified, assailed the tax deed for excessive levies.

On the trial the facts were agreed to, and they show that for the years covered by the tax proceedings culminating in the tax deed the county clerk placed on the tax-roll, to be collected for state purposes, amounts in excess of those apportioned to the county by the state board of equalization, as follow: For 1898, $ 592; for 1899, $ 482.33; for 1900, $ 256; for 1901, $ 206.

The agreed facts further show that on July 24, 1902, the county still remained indebted to the state for delinquent taxes, for which levies should have been made, as follow: For 1898, $ 616.03; for 1899, $ 1017.64; for 1901, $ 797.83.

Under the interpretation given to chapter 199 of the Laws of 1885 (Gen. Stat. 1901, § 7712) by this court in the case of Harper County v. Cole, 62 Kan. 121, 61 P. 403, it was the duty of the county clerk to place on the tax-rolls each year an amount in addition to the regular levy for state purposes sufficient to raise the sum in which the county was already delinquent to the state. The delinquencies noted in the agreed statement of facts were continuing obligations of the county to the state, and while they existed no levy for state purposes could be excessive that was not large enough to include them. Therefore, the levies made were not excessive.

On the trial the plaintiff sought to introduce evidence showing that illegally computed interest had...