O'Neal v. Virginia & M. Bridge Co.

• Decision Date: 02 November 1861
• Citation: 18 Md. 1
• Parties: JOSEPH O'NEAL and others, v. THE VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND BRIDGE COMPANY AT SHEPHERDS TOWN.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

18 Md. 1

JOSEPH O'NEAL and others, v. THE VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND BRIDGE COMPANY AT SHEPHERDS TOWN.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

November 2, 1861

A bridge over the Potomac river, and other property of a corporation for the erection of such bridge, lying within the limits of Maryland, is taxable in the county in which it is situated, under the Act of 1852, ch. 337, sec. 17, the principal office of the corporation, for the transaction of its business, not being within the limits of this State.

The property of a corporation was assessed, and entered on the assessors' books, in the name of the " Potomac Bridge Company, " whereas the true corporate name was, " The Virginia and Maryland Bridge Company at Shepherds Town. " The corporation had knowledge of the assessment, and no reason was assigned for their not going before the commissioners to have the error, as to the name, corrected. HELD:

That in such a case equity cannot interfere in behalf of the corporation, and relieve them from the payment of the tax so assessed.

Taxes are laid for the support of government, and all property made liable for contribution to this object, ought to be embraced in assessments for that purpose.

Tax assessments ought not to be vacated, and property released altogether, because the public officers have not strictly followed the provisions of law, which are merely directory assessments are not invalid if such directions are not complied with.

If the property owner omits to pursue the relief offered by the tax laws against the improper exercise of the taxing power, he cannot be relieved in equity, if at all, unless a strong case is presented.

In such case the property owner must show he has not been in default in availing of the means provided by the tax laws and there must be something more than legal error assigned facts must be presented appealing to the conscience of the court, to prevent wrong and injustice.

If the objection, as to the manner of making and returning the assessment, is merely technical, and goes to matter of form and not to substance, a court of equity ought not to interfere.

Substance and not form, is to control the construction of legislative enactments prescribing a mode in which acts are to be done.

The tax laws require public notice to be given of the meeting of the commissioners to correct errors, & c., in assessments, and the laws and publication impute notice to all persons, whether they have actual information or not.

The tax laws authorise the commissioners to increase or abate valuations, and to exclude property improperly valued, and, where such remedy is afforded, a court of equity has no jurisdiction to make corrections.

APPEAL from the Equity side of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

This appeal is from an order making perpetual an injunction, granted upon a bill, filed on the 14th of December 1857, by the Appellee against the Appellants, the collector of the tax and the county commissioners of Washington county, for the years 1854 and 1855, restraining the defendants from selling certain property of the complainant, for the payment of the State and county taxes for those years.

The bill, answers, and admissions of fact, show, that the complainant was incorporated by an Act of Virginia, passed in January 1848, under the corporate name of " The Virginia and Maryland Bridge Company at Shepherds Town; " which law was assented to by the Act of Maryland of 1847, ch. 287, passed in March 1848, in which the name is recited as, " The Maryland and Virginia Bridge Company. " The company having been organized under these Acts, in July 1849, purchased from one Blackford, for $15,000, the public ferry and ferry rights, across the Potomac at Shepherdstown, with certain lands and improvements thereto annexed, situated on both sides of the river, viz: fourteen or fifteen acres of land in Washington county, Maryland, at the Maryland termination of the ferry, with a ferry house and other improvements thereon, and about a half or three-fourths of an acre of land on the Virginia side, in Jefferson county, with a warehouse thereon. Prior to the passage of the Act of 1852, ch. 337, providing for a general assessment of property in Maryland, this company constructed a bridge over said river, at said ferry, with the necessary roads to the same, at both abutments. This bridge was a wooden structure, covered, resting upon stone abutments on the shores, and stone piers in the river, and was built in such manner as not to obstruct the navigation of the river, if the same had been navigable, as before the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal: and the total cost of the same, including the purchase of the ferry right, was $37,069.85.

The assessors, under the Act of 1852, ch. 337, assessed the property, and made the following entry upon the assessment book for Washington county, " Potomac Bridge Company: --Bridge opposite Shepherdstown, and 10 acres of land with building attached, $27,000," and in the assessment leger or book, made from the foregoing by the county commissioners, an account was opened headed thus: " " " " Bridge Company at Shepherdstown, $27,000." And this latter entry so remained till the 1st of October 1856, when it was changed by prefixing the words, " " Virginia and Maryland," and this change was made on that day by the clerk of the commissioners, upon an order of the board, for the purpose of proceeding against the complainant for the taxes for the years 1854 and 1855. No change was ever made in the entry upon the assessment book first above stated. The taxes for 1852 and 1853, were paid by the complainant on the 24th of February 1855, and the tax for 1853 was made out in the name of the " Potomac Bridge Company. " The commissioners held their session under sec. 26th of the Act of 1852, ch. 337, in January 1853, in pursuance of regular notice given in the newspapers, for hearing and determining complaints and appeals of persons who felt themselves aggrieved by the valuation of the assessors under said Act, and the complainant did not then appear with any appeal or complaint, or for any purpose.

The answers aver, that the complainant was fully aware of this assessment and valuation from the time it was made, and never objected to it or urged any exception whatever, until some two or three years afterwards, when they applied to the commissioners to have a change made, and to be relieved from taxation altogether; which is the same relief they are now asking, but which was refused. It was admitted that the application so referred to in the answers, was made sometime in 1856, and was not in the form of a regular proceeding by bill or petition, and no minute or record was made of the result by the commissioners or their clerk, but the whole proceedings were oral.

It was also admitted, that the assessment, aforesaid, includes the entire bridge of the complainant, (except so much of the abutment on the Virginia shore as may be beyond the limits of Maryland, as prescribed by the charter to Lord Baltimore,) and all the lands and improvements on the Maryland side of the river, but not the toll-house and other improvements on the Virginia shore, which are conceded to be within that State. That the office of business of the company is, and always has been, on the Virginia shore; that the officers of the company reside in Virginia, and two of its directors are appointed by that State; that the capital stock of the company consists of 727 shares at $50 per share, of which $10,000 are held by the State of Virginia, $5000 by a citizen of Pennsylvania, and the residue by citizens of Virginia; and that an annual report is made by the company to the Board of Public Works of that State in pursuance of the laws of Virginia.

It was further admitted, that the bridge of the complainant at Shepherdstown, is the only bridge over the Potomac, within the limits of Washington county, and that there is no other organised company for a bridge over that river in that county, beside the complainant; but that there is a bridge over that river at Berlin, in Frederick county, called " The Berlin and Potomac Bridge Company," erected under the Act of Maryland of 1847, ch. 197.

The grounds upon which this company claimed exemption from these taxes, are fully stated in the arguments of counsel, the opinion of this court, and the following opinion of the court below, (PERRY, J.,) delivered upon passing the decree making the injunction perpetual:

" In this case I have had much difficulty in determining the questions that have been made by the bill and answers. I will briefly give the opinion I entertain in the case. The complainant, by its Act of incorporation, is known by the name of ‘ The Virginia and Maryland Bridge Company.’ It appears that the assessors for Washington county, appointed by virtue of the Act of 1852, ch. 337, made an assessment of property in these words: ‘ Potomac Bridge Company, Bridge opposite Shepherdstown, and 10 acres of land, with building attached, $27,000," " and that the commissioners, in what is called the assessment leger or book, opened an account headed: ‘ Bridge Company at Shepherdstown, $27,000,’ which entry remained in that form, on said leger or book, up to the first of October 1856, when it was changed by prefixing the words, ‘ Virginia and Maryland.’ By the Act of 1852, ch. 337, sec. 25, it was made the duty of the county commissioners, of the respective counties, to cause to be made, on or before the 1st day of March 1853, and on or before said day, annually thereafter, an alphabetical list of the owners of the property assessed by virtue of the Act, together with the amount of his, her or their assessments, respectively answering to his or her name; which said list was

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