Gallatin Cnty. v. Beattie

• Decision Date: 31 January 1878
• Citation: 3 Mont. 173
• Parties: GALLATIN COUNTY, appellant, v. BEATTIE, respondent.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

3 Mont. 173

GALLATIN COUNTY, appellant,

v.BEATTIE, respondent.

Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana.

January Term, 1878.

Appeal from First District, Gallatin County.

THE action was tried by BLAKE, J., without a jury, and judgment was entered for Beattie.

J. G. SPRATT, district attorney, first district, for appellant.

SANDERS & CULLEN, for respondent.

KNOWLES, J.

The complaint in this action charges that certain mortgages valued at $1,900 were in the said county of Gallatin, Montana Territory, and were properly levied upon and assessed by the assessor of said county. The defendant in his answer denies that the said property is or ever was in Gallatin county, and alleges that the said assessor made up his assessment list, so far as this property is concerned, from the records of the county recorder of said Gallatin county, and avers that he never gave in said property to be listed for taxation, to said assessor. The replication to defendant's answer admits that the assessment was made on certain mortgages of record in the recorder's office for said county. It is also alleged in the answer and admitted in the replication that the defendant is a resident of Lewis and Clarke county.

There is nothing in the proof that tends to show that, at the time of the assessment of said taxes on said property, the said mortgages were in said county. This, under the pleadings, plaintiff was required to prove. The testimony shows that the assessment was made from the county recorder's books, wherein said mortgages had been recorded. The finding, number three, of the court below was in accordance with this testimony.

Section seven of the Revenue Law for this Territory (Codified Laws for 1871-2, page 603) provides: “All personal property shall be listed, assessed and taxed in the county where the same may be found, unless the owner or agent produce a receipt or certificate from the tax collector or assessor, showing that he has paid tax or been assessed for taxation on said property in some other county of the Territory for the same year.”

Taking this section in connection with section fourteen of the same act, and I may add, the whole scope of the statute upon revenue, where it relates to the assessment of property, and it is evident that it was not intended to give the assessor of any county authority to assess property not in his county. To allow an assessor to assess any property but what he finds in his county would produce endless confusion in...