Pa. Coal Co. v. Porth

• Decision Date: 28 April 1885
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Parties: PENNSYLVANIA COAL CO. v. PORTH, CITY CLERK, ETC.

63 Wis. 77

23 N.W. 105

PENNSYLVANIA COAL CO.

v.PORTH, CITY CLERK, ETC.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Filed April 28, 1885.

Appeal from circuit court, Milwaukee county.

Van Dyke & Van Dyke, for respondent.

Robert Luscombe, for appellant.

COLE, C. J.

It was stipulated that the affidavit on which the application for the writ of certiorari was founded, contained the facts relating to the assessment. It appears that the respondent is a foreign corporation engaged in the coal trade, and carrying a large stock of coal in its yards at Milwaukee, for the supply of the local market, and for shipment to points in the interior. On May 1, 1884, the company owned and had in its possession, in the city of Milwaukee, personal property consisting of coal at its yard, partly held for sale and partly awaiting shipment, of the value of $9,428, and tools, implements, and machinery used in operating its yard, office furniture and fixtures, of the value of $1,500, together aggregating $10,928. During the year preceding May 1, 1884, the company did not have any money, notes, stocks, bonds, mortgages, or other securities in its possession at said city, except about the average sum of $2,000, which was expended by it in the operation of its coal-yard; that, except as above stated, the company did not own, hold, or possess, either in its own right or in any capacity whatever, any personal property of any kind or description liable to taxation or assessment in the city. On the assessment roll returned by the assessor to the board of review on the last Monday of June of that year the company was assessed at the sum of $30,000 on account of the value of merchants' stock, and was assessed on no other personal property. The company, feeling aggrieved by this assessment, appeared before the board of review, and its agent was examined under oath and disclosed the above facts. No other witnesses were examined. The board was requested to reduce the assessment to $10,928, which represented the value of its personal property in its possession on May 1, 1884, which the board declined to do. The board claimed that $30,000 represented the value of the average amount of coal in the possession of the company in the city during the year next preceding May 1, 1884, and that its property should be assessed for taxation according to that rule. Was this a correct view of the law? We think it is very clear that it was not.

The statute provides that “all personal property shall be assessed as of the first day of May in such year.” Section 1033, Rev. St. Section 1040 provides that the personal property of a non-resident shall be assessed in the assessment district where its agent having charge of its property shall reside. Also that no change of location or “sale of any personal property after the first day of May in any year shall affect the assessment made in such year.” See chapter 354, Laws 1883. These provisions clearly “fix the property for taxation, in its location and ownership, on the first day of” Ma...