Montezuma Valley Water-Supply Co. v. Bell

• Decision Date: 18 June 1894
• Citation: Montezuma Valley Water-Supply Co. v. Bell, 36 P. 1102, 20 Colo. 175 (Colo. 1894)
• Parties: MONTEZUMA VALLEY WATER-SUPPLY CO. et al. v. BELL, Treasurer.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

36 P. 1102

20 Colo. 175

MONTEZUMA VALLEY WATER-SUPPLY CO. et al. v. BELL, Treasurer.

Supreme Court of Colorado

June 18, 1894

Error to district court, La Plata county.

This is an action brought by John F. Bell, as county treasurer for the county of La Plata, plaintiff below, against the Montezuma Valley Water-Supply Company and the Colorado Water-Supply Company, defendants below, to recover from the former company certain taxes alleged to have been assessed and levied upon the personal and real property of said company for the years 1887 and 1888, and to have such taxes adjudged a lien upon the realty owned by the former company during those years, and to foreclose such lien, and subject the property now owned by the latter company to the satisfaction thereof. Upon the trial of the cause the evidence relied on to support a recovery was the following certificate:

'Statement of the taxes due La Plata county, Colo., from the Montezuma Valley Water-Supply Company:

Tax 1887, personal	$ 629 17
Interest	442 57
---------
	$1,071 74
Tax 1888, personal	$ 336 00
Interest	152 29
---------
	488 29
Tax 1888, real property ..	$3,200 00
Interest ..................	1,451 17
---------
	4,651 17
	---------
	$6,211 20

'I hereby certify that the above statement is correct, according to the tax list in my office, and the same is not paid. [Seal] John F. Bell, County Treasurer, La Plata County, Colo.'

--And a certified copy of the articles of incorporation of the Montezuma Valley Water-Supply Company, on file in the office of the recorder of La Plata county, and a mortgage executed by said company to the Boston Safe-Deposit Company, filed for record in La Plata county April 19, 1886, for the benefit of certain bondholders, and a certified copy of the tax list for the year 1888. Upon this evidence the court below found for plaintiff, and rendered judgment against the former company for the sum of $6,211.20, and adjudged the same to be a lien upon the realty (describing it), and ordered the same to be sold to satisfy the lien. To reverse this judgment and decree, the defendants bring the case here on error. Reversed.

Thompson & Ingersoll and S.W. Carpenter, for plaintiffs in error.

O. S. Galbreath, J. P. Jackson, and N.C. Miller, for defendant in error.

GODDARD, J. (after stating the facts as above).

We think it is clear that the court erred in rendering the judgment against defendant the Montezuma Valley Water-Supply Company for the amount of the taxes, if any, due upon the realty, and also erred in subjecting the real property now owned by the defendant the Colorado Water-Supply Company to the payment of the judgment rendered. Section 2818 of our revenue act (Gen. St. 1883) provides that 'all taxes shall be levied for the fiscal year ending November thirty (30) in each year, and shall be a perpetual lien upon all real estate subject to taxation, until such taxes and any penalty, charges and interest which have accrued...