First Nat. Bank of Biloxi v. Board of Sup'rs of Harrison County

• Decision Date: 07 April 1930
• Docket Number: 28358
• Citation: 157 Miss. 197,127 So. 686
• Parties: FIRST NAT. BANK OF BILOXI v. BOARD OF SUP'RS OF HARRISON COUNTY
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

127 So. 686

157 Miss. 197

FIRST NAT. BANK OF BILOXI v. BOARD OF SUP'RS OF HARRISON COUNTY

No. 28358

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 7, 1930

Division A

Pending on Appeal to U. S. Supreme Court.

APPEAL from circuit court of Harrison county HON. W. A. WHITE Judge.

Petition by the First National Bank of Biloxi filed with the Board of Supervisors of Harrison county for a correction of an assessment. The Board denied the petition, and on appeal the circuit court dismissed the petition, and petitioner appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

W. L. Guice, of Biloxi, and Jno. L. Heiss, of Gulfport, for appellant.

The whole scheme of taxation as devised by section 112 of Constitution 1890 is plain, simple, and easily understood. In order to carry out that design, three things are necessary: (1) Property must be assessed for taxes under general laws. (2) Property must be assessed at its true value. (3) Property shall be taxed in proportion to its value, and taxation shall be equal and uniform.

Adams v. Mississippi State Bank, 23 So. 396, 397; Adams v. Bank of Oxford, 29 So. 402; Edward Hines Yellow Pine Trustees v. Knox, 108 So. 907; Chicago R. I. & E. R. Co. v. Robertson, 84 So. 449; Knox v. Southern Paper Company, 108 So. 288; Hemingway's Code of 1927, section 8211; section 4381, Mississippi Code of 1906.

Where a State Constitution provides for the assessment of property at its true value and also provides for uniformity of taxation, the true value provision gives way under the uniformity provision and where boards of taxing authorities, even though separate and distinct in their personnel, fix a higher rate for one class of property than is charged against another class of property, this is in effect a deprivation of the equal protection of the law and such assessment is void and invalid.

Sioux City Bridge Co. v. Dakota County, 43 S.Ct. 190; Sunday Lake Iron Co. v. Wakefield Tp., 247 U.S. 350, 352, 353, 38 S.Ct. 495, 62 L.Ed. 1154; Green v. Louisville & Interurban R. Co., 244 U.S. 499, 516, 517, 518, 37 S.Ct. 673, 61 L.Ed. 1280; Cummins v. National Bank, 101 U.S. 153, 160, 25 L.Ed. 903; Taylor v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 88 F. 350, 364, 365, 372, 374, 31 C. C. A. 537; Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Bosworth (D. C.), 209 F. 380, 452; Washington Water Power Co. v. Kootenae County C. C. A., 270 F. 369, 374; Bohler v. Callaway, 45 S.Ct. 431; Knox v. Southern Paper Co., 108 So. 288.

O. J. Dedeaux and Mize & Mize & Thompson, all of Gulfport, for appellee.

No constitutional violation of the provision for equal and uniform taxation or of due process of law or the equal protection of the laws is effected by taxing the capital of a bank at full value while other property is assessed at only a percentage of its value, where the Constitution expressly authorizes the taxing of bank capital according to the value thereof and requires the valuation of corporate property at its true value, and that each state has a sovereign right to classify property for taxation and so long as property of the same class bears the same rate, there is no violation of the provisions of the Federal Constitution guaranteeing due process of law and equal protection of the laws.

Sections 112 & 181 of Constitution of 1890; Magnolia Bank v. Pike County, 111 Miss. 857, 3 A.L.R. 1365; Bank of Tupelo v. Board of Supervisors, 155 Miss. 436; Magnolia Bank v. Board of Supervisors of Pike County, 248 U.S. 546, 63 L.Ed. 248, 39 S.Ct. 135; Mich. R. R. v. Powers, 50 L.Ed. 744; Ky. R. R. Cases, 29 L.Ed. 414; State R. R. Cases, 23 L.Ed. 663; Y. & M. V. R. R. v. Adams, 77 Miss. 764; G. C. M. A. v. Harrison County, 89 So. 617; Bank v. Adams, 93 So. 442; Miller v. Bank, 110 So. 439.

Argued orally by W. L. Guice, for appellant, and by S. C. Mize, for appellee.

OPINION

Cook, J.

At the time and in the manner required by law, the assessor of Harrison county, Mississippi, presented to the board of supervisors of that county, the assessment rolls for the year 1928, including the personal assessment roll, and thereupon the board of supervisors gave notice to the public that these assessment rolls would be equalized in accordance with the provisions of law at its August, 1928, meeting. At this meeting of the board of supervisors the First National Bank of Biloxi filed its petition, averring that it is a national banking corporation, organized under the laws of the United States, and domiciled at Biloxi, Mississippi; that the assessment of its property as reflected by the assessment roll of Harrison county, Mississippi, was an assessment at the rate of one hundred cents on the dollar of its entire assets consisting of capital, surplus, and undivided profits; that it was entitled to have this assessment reduced to an amount that would equal sixty-five per cent on each dollar of its assets, for the reason that all other property in said county, except the banks, was assessed at such a rate.

The petition further averred that, although the Constitution of the state of Mississippi, particularly section 112 thereof and the various laws enacted in the taxation scheme based upon this section, provided that all property should be assessed at its true value, this constitutional and statutory mandate was disregarded by the board of supervisors of Harrison county, as well as all boards of supervisors in the state of Mississippi, which, for the purpose of keeping down the assessment of their...