Inhabitants of Mech. Falls v. Millett

• Decision Date: 15 May 1922
• Citation: 117 A. 93
• Parties: INHABITANTS OF MECHANIC FALLS v. MILLETT.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

117 A. 93

INHABITANTS OF MECHANIC FALLS

v. MILLETT.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

May 15, 1922.

Report from Superior Court, Androscoggin County.

Action by Inhabitants of Mechanic Falls against Frank A. Millett. On report judgment for plaintiffs.

Argued before CORNISH, C. J., and SPEAR, HANSON, PHILBROOK, MORRILL, and WILSON, JJ.

Harry Manser, of Auburn, for plaintiffs.

Frank A. Morey, of Lewiston, for defendant.

PHILBROOK, J. This is an action brought to recover a balance claimed by the plaintiffs to be due from the defendant to the town of Mechanic Falls for unpaid taxes assessed for the year 1920. The case is submitted on an agreed statement of facts. It is admitted that all requirements of law were complied with in relation to the assessment of the tax and the institution of the action. It is also admitted that the defendant was a soldier who served in the war of 1861-65, was honorably discharged, had reached the age of 80 years, but whose property subject to taxation exceeded the value of $5,000. It it also agreed that the only question for determination is whether the defendant is exempt from taxation, for the year 1920, upon taxable property to the value of $5,000, the amount sued for being the tax upon $5,000 in value of the defendant's property, which he declined to pay upon the ground that he was exempt from such payment under the provisions of R. S. c. 10, § 6, paragraph 9, as amended by chapter 105 of the Public Laws of 1919. The subject-matter of the question to be determined relates, therefore, to statutory exemption from the payment of property taxes.

Previous to the year 1919 an exemption from the payment of a poll tax had been granted to all soldiers and sailors, regardless of age, who served in the army or navy of the United States in the war of 186h-65, commonly spoken of as the Civil War, and were honorably discharged from such service. In that year the Legislature provided by amendment that—

"The estates of all soldiers and sailors who served in the war of eighteen hundred and sixty-one and five, the war with Spain, and the war with the Imperial German government and its allies, and were honorably discharged, who shall have reached the age of seventy years, and whose property shall not exceed the value of five thousand dollars," should be included in the list of tax exemptions.

The defendant, whose property otherwise subject to taxation exceeded the value of $5,000, claims that under the amendment he is exempt from payment of a tax upon $5,000 worth of property, and should have been taxed only upon so much of his property as exceeded that sum.

Since the amendment of 1919 is of such recent origin it is not strange that it has not before been construed by this court, and diligent search among the decisions of other courts fails to disclose any ruling...