Gillett v. The Treasurer of Lyon County

• Decision Date: 01 July 1883
• Citation: 30 Kan. 166,1 P. 577
• Parties: ALMERIN GILLETT, et al., v. THE TREASURER OF LYON COUNTY, et al
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

1 P. 577

30 Kan. 166

ALMERIN GILLETT, et al., v. THE TREASURER OF LYON COUNTY, et al

Supreme Court of Kansas

July 1, 1883

Error from Lyon District Court.

ACTION brought by Gillett and others against the treasurer and the sheriff of Lyon county, to perpetually enjoin the collection of a tax on certain cattle. At the March Term, 1883, the district court overruled plaintiffs' demurrer to defendants' answer, which ruling plaintiffs bring here. The opinion contains a sufficient statement of the facts.

Judgment affirmed.

Almerin Gillett, for plaintiffs in error.

Buck & Feighan, for defendants in error.

BREWER J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

BREWER, J.:

The single question in this case is, as to the powers of the county board of equalization in respect to personal property. Prior to 1876 the law was settled that personal-property assessments could not be changed except after notice to the owner. (Comm'rs v. Lang, 8 Kan. 284; Rly Co. v. Comm'rs, 16 id. 587; Rld. Co. v Smith, 19 id. 233.) At the same time the board of equalization had power to correct the assessment of real estate without personal notice to the owner. (Rld. Co. v. Russell, 8 Kan. 558: Rld. Co. v. Comm'rs, 16 id. 587.)

This distinction grew out of the legislation in force prior to that time. Sec. 43, ch. 107, General Statutes, constituted the board of equalization, but gave it power simply in respect to real estate. The time of meeting of that board was fixed by statute, and notice of the time of meeting was also required to be published; so it was held that, given power to equalize, the time of meeting prescribed, as well as publication of the notice of the time of meeting, the board without further and special notice had power to change the assessment of real estate by either raising or lowering; while the board of equalization having no jurisdiction over personal property, § 65 prescribed the only method of correcting the assessment of personal property, and that in terms required notice to the owner.

In 1876 a radical change was made in the tax law. By § 74 of the tax law of that year, (being ch. 107, Comp. Laws 1879,) the board of equalization is in terms given jurisdiction over the equalization of the valuation of personal property to the same degree as over real property. The time of meeting being fixed, and publication of notice of the time of meeting being required, the same argument which prior to 1876 sustained the power of the board to raise the valuation of real estate without personal notice to the owner, sustains now like action as to personal property.

If this were all, it would be simply sufficient to refer to those prior cases, and rest this decision upon them; but there are other provisions of the statute--some which strengthen this conclusion, and others, which it is claimed still require personal notice. In noticing the changes, we shall refer to the tax law in the general statute of 1868, and that in the Comp. Laws of 1879. Now in the former, by § 10, the party listing personal property was required himself to place a value on it. By § 9 of the latter, he is simply called upon to give the items and the amount, and by § 14 the assessor is required to increase or diminish the value, if satisfied that the true value is not placed thereon by the owner, with a proviso that the change shall be made at the time the return is made to the assessor. Section 59 further provides that any sworn statement made by the owner to the assessor shall not be conclusive as to the value of any personal property, and also that the owner shall not be required to swear to the value.

Again by § 58, the several assessors of the county are required to meet on the first Monday of March and agree upon an equal basis of valuation of such property as they may be called upon to assess. These provisions plainly indicate that, while up to 1876 the owner placed his own valuation on personal property, which valuation was conclusive unless changed by the county clerk or county board under the provision of § 65, since 1876 the...