Klickitat Warehouse Co. v. Klickitat County

• Decision Date: 15 March 1906
• Parties: KLICKITAT WAREHOUSE CO. v. KLICKITAT COUNTY et al.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

84 P. 860

42 Wash. 299

KLICKITAT WAREHOUSE CO. v. KLICKITAT COUNTY et al.

Supreme Court of Washington

March 15, 1906

Appeal from Superior Court, Klickitat County; A. L. Miller, Judge.

Suit by the Klickitat Warehouse Company against Klickitat county and another. From a judgment in favor of defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

W. B Presby and F. D. Chamberlain, for appellant.

E. C Ward, for respondents.

CROW J.

This action was commenced by the Klickitat Warehouse Company, a corporation, appellant, to enjoin the respondents, Klickitat county and T. B. Montgomery, its treasurer, from selling two warehouses in said county, one at Goldendale and one at Centerville, Wash., for taxes on wheat assessed to the Balfour, Guthrie & Co., of Portland, Or. The complaint alleged that the Northern Wharf & Warehouse Company, an Oregon corporation, built both of said warehouses in the year 1902, and on August 1, 1903, sold them to appellant; that early in the year 1903 Klickitat county assessed both warehouses and 165,000 bushels of wheat located therein as the personal property of Balfour, Guthrie & Co. that the total taxes on said wheat and warehouses was $2,509.96; that appellant tendered $133.20, the total tax on the warehouses, which respondents refused to accept, and that the respondent have advertised said two warehouses for sale to satisfy said entire sum of $2,509.96. Respondents by their answer allege that said warehouses were the property of Balfour, Guthrie & Co. from the time of the listing of said warehouses and said wheat for taxation until August 1, 1903. Findings of fact were made in accordance with the respondents' contention, their substance in so far as they affect this opinion being that the Northern Wharf &amp Warehouse Company was not at any of the times alleged in the complaint the owner of said warehouses, but that said warehouses were built in the spring of 1902 by Balfour, Guthrie & Co., who continued to own the same until after the assessment of said warehouses and wheat contained therein; that the Northern Wharf & Warehouse Company performed certain acts in their construction as the agent of Balfour, Guthrie & Co.; that all acts of the Northeren Wharf & Warehouse Company in the management of said warehouses, since the same were built, were also performed as agents of Balfour, Guthrie & Co., and that the treasurer of Klickitat county had, prior to the commencement of the action, advertised said warehouses for sale to satisfy the amount due for taxes thereon, and also on said wheat. Upon said findings, the court entered judgment in favor of respondent, from which judgment this appeal has been taken.

The first assignment of error is based upon the contention that the findings of fact made by the trial court were not sustained by the evidence. We have carefully examined the evidence, and are satisfied that the findings are fully warranted thereby, and will not disturb the same.

The principal assignment of error urged by appellant is based upon the contention that, under the law of this state as it existed in 1903, the tax assessed against said wheat and warehoused, which were personal property, did not become a lien until after September 1, 1903. Prior to 1903, taxes assessed upon personal property became a lien upon all real and personal property of the person assessed from and after the first Monday of February next succeeding the date of their levy. Ballinger's Ann. Codes & St. § 1740. On March 9, 1903, the Legislature passed, with an emergency clause, an amendatory act (Sess. Laws 1903, p. 73 c. 59), section 3 of which act provided that the taxes assessed upon personal property shall be a lien upon all the real and personal property of the person assessed, from and after the date upon which such assessment is made. As appellant acquired its warehouses on August 1, 1903, it now contends such warehouses were not subject to any lien for taxes on said wheat for the year 1903, for the reason that, under said amendatory act, the assessment of personal property is not completed until the state board of equalization has fully discharged its duties; that said board does not meet until the first Tuesday in September, section 1716, Ballinger's Ann. Codes & St., and hence no lien existed on the warehouses before they became the property of appellant. In support of this position appellant cites: Hunt v. Fawcett, 8 Wash. 396, 399, 36 P. 318, 319, where this court said: 'It appears from the pleadings that only such indebtedness as was incurred after the assessment of 1892 became operative was invalid, and it...