Inhabitants of the Town of Clinton v. Williams

• Decision Date: 31 July 1873
• Citation: 53 Mo. 141
• Parties: THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF CLINTON, Defendants in Error, v. SAMUEL K. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

53 Mo. 141

THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF CLINTON, Defendants in Error,

v.SAMUEL K. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

July Term, 1873.

Error to the Henry County Court of Common Pleas.

F. P. Wright, for Plaintiff in Error.

The petition does not state sufficient facts to show that plaintiff's have any cause of action against defendant. (Gould's Pl., 160.)

McBeth & Price, for Defendants in Error.

The omissions in the petition are cured by the verdict. As a finding on those points was necessary to the finding of the verdict rendered, it will be presumed that their omission was supplied by the evidence. (Roper vs. Clay, 18 Mo., 383; Richardson vs. Farmer, 36 Mo., 35; Shaler vs. Van Wormer, 33 Mo., 386.)VORIES, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was brought by the inhabitants of the town of Clinton to recover from the defendant certain taxes charged to be due from him to the plaintiff as taxes for the year 1870, together with a penalty thereon for non-payment.

The petition charges, that the defendant is indebted to plaintiff for taxes due plaintiff for the year 1870, levied by plaintiff as such corporation upon the assessed valuation of the property of defendant situate in the limits of the corporation of the inhabitants of the town of Clinton, and for ten per cent. penalty added to said tax by the collector of plaintiff after the 2d Monday of October, 1870, said tax being then delinquent and unpaid for the year 1870; that the amount of taxes due for said year appears on the tax-book as follows: (The plaintiff then sets forth a tabular statement of the taxes and penalty due, showing the Addition of the town, the lot and amount of taxes, and penalty, levied on each, amounting in all to $67 60). The petition then charges, that said tax and penalty is due plaintiff, and prays judgment therefor, and prays that a special judgment be rendered against the property taxed, and that the same be sold to satisfy the judgment, as provided by an ordinance of the inhabitants of the town of Clinton, entitled “an ordinance to provide for the levying, assessing and collecting of the revenue of the inhabitants of the town of Clinton,” passed April 9th, 1870.

The defendant by his answer simply denies that he is indebted to plaintiff, either for the taxes or penalty charged, or on any other account, and then makes a sweeping denial, in which he states that he “denies each and every material allegation in the petition necessary to be denied or controverted.”

A trial of the cause was had by the court, a jury having been waived. The plaintiff to maintain the issues on his part introduced one Stevens as a witness, who testified, that he was clerk of the board of trustees of the inhabitants of the town of Clinton, that as such he had the custody of the books of the town. The plaintiff then offered to read in evidence an order entered on said books, by which one G. S. Ellis purported to have been appointed the collector for the inhabitants of the town of Clinton.

The defendant objected to the introduction of said order as evidence on the ground, that it had not been shown that plaintiff had any authority to make said appointment. This objection was overruled, and the defendant excepted. G. S. Ellis then testified, that he was the collector of the inhabitants of the town of Clinton, and produced the tax-book of plaintiff for the year 1870, and read therefrom entries of what purported to be assessments of taxes on certain town lots therein set forth, which were charged to defendant. The defendant also objected to this evidence for the reason, that no authority had been shown in the plaintiff to levy and collect taxes,...