Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Home Credit Co.

• Decision Date: 26 May 1933
• Docket Number: No. 22.,22.
• Parties: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE v. HOME CREDIT CO.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

166 A. 604

MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE

v. HOME CREDIT CO.^*

No. 22.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

May 26, 1933.

Appeal from Baltimore Court of Common Pleas; Joseph N. Ulman, Judge.

Action by the Home Credit Company, a corporation, against the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, a body politic and corporate. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

Argued before PATTISON, URNER, ADKINS, DIGGES, PARKE, and SLOAN, JJ.

Lawrence B. Fenneman and J. Francis Ireton, Asst. City Sols., both of Baltimore (R. E. Lee Marshall, City Sol., and Hector J. Ciotti, Asst. City Sol., both of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.

Francis Key Murray, of Baltimore (Thomas J. Tingley, of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.

PATTISON, Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment recovered by the appellee, the Home Credit Company, against the mayor and city council of Baltimore, the appellant, for the money alleged to have been erroneously and mistakenly paid to the appellant as taxes for the years 1930, 1931, and 1932.

The case was tried by the court sitting without a jury. The verdict was for the plaintiff for the sum of $1,783.02, and a judgment for that amount was entered thereon in favor of the plaintiff. The appeal in this case was taken from that judgment.

In the trial of the case three exceptions were taken to the rulings of the court upon the evidence and one upon its rulings on the prayers. The plaintiff offered two prayers, both of which were granted; and the defendant offered seven, all of which were refused except his last or seventh prayer.

As shown by agreed Statement of facts appearing in the record, "the Home Credit Company * * * is a corporation duly incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware, with its principal office and place of business in the City of Baltimore, State of Maryland, where it is engaged in the purchasing and discounting of promissory notes and transacting a general finance business.

"On August 19th, 1927, the Home Credit Company * * * filed with the Appeal Tax Court of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore its 'Schedule and Return to the Appeal Tax Court of Tangible and Intangible Personal Property Located in the City of Baltimore Owned by Foreign Finance Corporations.' * * * The printed form of said 'Schedule and Return' was prepared by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore * * * but was completed and filled in by the Home Credit Company. * * * Upon this return the Appeal Tax Court valued the property returned therein and made an assessment for purposes of taxation for 1928 and subsequent years against the Home Credit Company * * * on September 20th, 1927, the assessment being * * * on intangible personal property of $42,890.00, which assessment was continued from year to year thereafter. This intangible personal property assessment of $42,890.00 was computed only from the value stated by the Home Credit Company in the 'Schedule and Return,' under the caption of 'Notes on Loans.' Notice of said assessment was duly given and no protest filed thereto, and taxes for the years 1928 and 1929 were paid thereon by the Home Credit Company. * * * On the * * * intangible personal property assessment of $42,890.00 taxes were levied for the year 1930 by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for State and City purposes by virtue of Ordinance Nos. 876 and 875, respectively. * * *

"The Home Credit Company * * * paid taxes so assessed and levied for the year 1930 * * * amounting to $191.72, of which amount * * * $127.38 was paid * * * for City taxes, and * * * $64.34 was paid * * * for State taxes" and "turned over to the Treasurer of the State of Maryland. * * *

"On August 25th, 1930, the Home Credit Company * * * filed with the Appeal Tax Court * * * another 'Schedule and Return to the Appeal Tax Court of Tangible and Intangible Personal Property Located in the City of Baltimore Owned by Foreign Finance Corporations,' this Schedule and Return superseding its Schedule and Return filed on August 19th, 1927. * * * The printed form of said 'Schedule and Return' (like the first) was prepared by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore * * * but was completed and filled in by the Home Credit Company. * * * Upon this return the Appeal Tax Court valued the property returned therein and made an assessment for purposes of taxation for the year 1931 and subsequent years against the Home Credit Company * * * on October 4th, 1030, the assessment being * * * on intangible personal property of $1,102,754.17. Notice of said assessment was duly given, upon receipt of which * * * the Home Credit Company * * * protested said assessment. No hearing was had upon the protest, but by agreement with. * * * the Home Credit Company * * * the Appeal Tax Court reduced said assessment * * * to $275,040.00 on October 21st, 1930. This * * * assessment of $275,940.00 was computed only from the value stated by the Home Credit Company in the 'Schedule and Return,' under the caption of 'Loans on Notes.' Notice of this assessment * * * $275,940.00 on intangible personal property, was duly given and no protest filed thereto. On the * * * intangible personal property assessment of $275,940.00 taxes were levied for the year 1931 by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for State and City purposes by virtue of Ordinances Nos. 1211 and 1213, respectively. * * *

"The Home Credit Company * * * paid taxes so assessed and levied for the year 1931 * * * amounting to $1,241.74, of which amount * * * on August 31st, 1931, the sum of $699.15 was paid * * * for City taxes, and * * * $349.58 * * * for State taxes" and "turned over to the Treasurer of the State of Maryland * * * of which amount * * * the sum of $128.67 was paid * * * for City taxes, and * * * $64.34 * * * for State taxes" and "turned over to the Treasurer of the State of Maryland. * * *

"The assessment * * * on intangible personal property of $275,940.00, made by the Appeal Tax Court of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore on October 21st, 1930, was continued for the year 1932. On the * * * assessment of $275,940.00 taxes were levied for the year 1932 by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for State and City purposes by virtue of Ordinance Nos. 94 and 90, respectively. * * *

"The Home Credit Company * * * paid taxes so assessed and levied for the year 1932 on August 30th, 1932 * * * amounting to $1,241.73, of which amount * * * $827.82 was paid * * * for City taxes, and * * * $413.91 * * * for State taxes," and "turned over to the Treasurer of the State of Maryland. * * *

"Therefore, the Home Credit Company * * * has paid to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore the following sums of money for taxes assessed on intangible personal property as aforesaid:

For the Year

State Taxes

City Taxes

1930

$ 64.34

$ 127.38

1931

$413.92

$ 827.82

1932

$413.91

$ 827.82

Total

$892.17

$1,783.02

"and has demanded from the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore * * * the return of said money paid as aforesaid as a refund of taxes under and by virtue of chapter 226 of the Acts of 1929 of the General Assembly of Maryland, codified in the 1929 Supplement to the Maryland Code, article 81, Section 153."

The two schedules and returns mentioned in the agreed statement of facts were filed in evidence. These schedules are inquisitorial in their nature. In them are inserted different kinds of property; for example, under the head of intangible property they have "Mortgages on Real Property," "Chattel Mortgages," "Notes on Loans," "Securities (Shares of Stocks and Bonds)." Following each of these items is a blank space in which the taxpayer is expected to write his answer thereto, stating if he has any such property and, if so, the amount or extent of it.

In addition to the facts contained in the stipulation above set out and the contents of the schedule and return, the record contains the further evidence as to the character of the "Notes on Loans," and the reasons why the tax thereon was paid without protest or appeal. The president, treasurer, and assistant treasurer of the appellee company each swore that these notes were made by individuals and not by corporations, and that the company held no bonds or certificates of indebtedness of any kind of any corporation. The president, Joseph T. Polk, testified further that the company did not protest against the payment of taxes on these notes as it was thought by its officials at the time of the payment of the taxes, and for a long time thereafter, that notes signed by individuals were under the law subject to assessment and taxation.

The three exceptions to the testimony were taken to the court's ruling in admitting the evidence of these witnesses.

The court, sitting as a jury, was told by the plaintiff's first prayer, which was granted, that should it find from the evidence "that the Plaintiff paid to the Defendant monies as an intangible property tax, for the years 1930, 1931 and 1932, and that said tax was based on an assessment of notes, then if the Court * * * shall further find that all of said notes were in fact signed or issued by individuals, and shall further find that said monies were paid under a belief by the Plaintiff that the same were legally due and owing, the verdict of the Court, sitting as a jury, must be for the Plaintiff."

The plaintiff's second prayer, a damage prayer, is consistent with the defendant's seventh prayer, and no objection is urged against it.

The defendant's first and second prayers asked for a directed verdict for the defendant, the first upon the general assertion that there was no evidence in the case legally sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover, and the second that under the evidence the plaintiff was not entitled to recover "by virtue of article 81, § 153 of the 1929 Supplement to the Annotated Code."

By defendant's third prayer the court, sitting as a jury, was told that should it find that the "taxes were levied upon assessments made by the Appeal...