National Bank v. Kimball
| Decision Date | 01 October 1880 |
| Parties | NATIONAL BANK v. KIMBALL |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Mr. D. K. Tenney and Mr. J. M. Flower for the appellant.
Mr. Consider H. Willett, contra.
This is a bill in chancery, filed by The German National Bank of Chicago, to enjoin Kimball, collector of the town of South Chicago, from enforcing payment of the taxes assessed against the holders of shares of its stock.
The general grounds on which this relief is sought are two-fold, namely: that the assessment violates the provision of the act of Congress concerning national banks, which forbids the States from taxing these shares at any higher rate than other moneyed capital within the State; and that it also violates the provision of the Constitution of Illinois concerning uniformity of taxation. From the decree dismissing the bill on demurrer, this appeal has been taken.
The bill is made up of averments which are intended to show that the valuation of the property of other persons in the same town, made by the same assessor, is less in proportion to its actual cash value than that of the complainant's shares; that the same is true in other parts of the State; that some corporations are favored in this valuation, and that certain classes of property are favored in a general way. But there is no distinct averment that the shares of this bank are valued higher for the purpose of taxation than other moneyed capital generally, though this is alleged in regard to particular instances. The allegations are pretty full that the assessments are partial, unequal, and unjust, and do not result in the uniformity of taxation which the Constitution of Illinois requires.
But we think there are two fatal objections to the bill.
The first of these is that there is no offer to pay any sum as the tax which the shares of the bank ought to pay.
We have announced more than once that it is the established rule of this court that no one can be permitted to go into a court of equity to enjoin the collection of a tax until he has shown himself entitled to the aid of the court by paying so much of the tax assessed against him as it can be plainly seen he ought to pay; that he shall not be permitted, because his tax is in excess of what is just and lawful, to screen himself from paying any tax at all until the precise amount which he ought to pay is ascertained by a court of equity; and that the owner of property liable to taxation is bound to contribute his lawful share to the current expenses of government, and cannot throw that share on others while he engages in an expensive and protracted litigation to ascertain that the amount which he is assessed is or is not a few dollars more than it ought to be. But that before he asks this exact and scrupulous justice he must first do equity by paying so much as it is clear he ought to pay, and contest and delay only the remainder. State Railroad Tax Cases, 92 U.S. 575.
The bill sttempts to evade this rule by alleging that the tax is wholly void, and, therefore, none of it ought to be paid, and that by reason of the absence of the uniformity of values, it is impossible for any person to compute or ascertain what the stockholders of the complainant bank ought to pay on the shares of the bank. In the case just cited this court said, in answer to the first objection: ...
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