Pacific R.R. Co. v. Cnty. Clerk of Franklin Co.

• Decision Date: 31 July 1874
• Citation: 57 Mo. 223
• Parties: PACIFIC R. R. CO., Appellant, v. THE COUNTY CLERK OF FRANKLIN CO., Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

57 Mo. 223

PACIFIC R. R. CO., Appellant,

v.THE COUNTY CLERK OF FRANKLIN CO., Respondent.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

July Term, 1874.

Appeal from Franklin Circuit Court.

Baker & Litton, for Appellant.

I.The court committed error in allowing the entry made by Miller in the record of the proceedings of the county Board of Equalization, after the institution of this suit, and more than eight months after that board had adjourned sine die, and the record of their proceedings had been written out and signed as the true record of all their proceedings.The clerk had no authority to make the entry.The law does not allow taxes to be increased $738,000 by the mere verbal statement of an irresponsible clerk.

II.The powers and authority of the Board are defined in the statute, (2 Wagn. Stat., 1163, §§ 16, 19).They have no authority to assess property or to do anything except change the amount of assessments that have already been made, and any other action is a nullity.(Pac. R. R. Co. vs. Cass Co., 53 Mo., 17.)

In this as in the Cass county case, no notice either by advertisement or otherwise was ever given the relator.This alone makes the action of the board a nullity.

Even if the Board had had authority to make assessments of property, which the assessor for any year had failed to assess, they could not assess the property for the year 1870, because it had been duly assessed by the assessor for that year.(SeeWagn. Stat., 1173, § 40.)

Even if the county Board had made the order, their secretary had no authority to make the entry on the assessor's book.Such change must be made by the assessor himself.(Wagn. Stat., 1163, § 19.)

The assessor cannot make entries in his books after he returns them.(Wagn. Stat., 1173, §§ 40, 42.)

Seay & Kiskaddon, for Respondent.

NAPTON, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an application to the Circuit Court for a mandamus ordering the clerk of the County Court of Franklin county to erase from the assessment books of the county assessor, made for the levying of taxes for the year 1871, and returned by said assessor to the County Court on the 6th day of February, 1871, an alleged interpolation in said assessment books, in these words: “The Pacific R. R. Co. assessed for 1873--$738,000.”

It is not necessary to an understanding of the case that the pleadings should be recited.The facts are sufficiently developed in the testimony of C. H. Miller, who was a deputy of the county clerk.

It seems that the board of equalization for Franklin county, composed of the presiding justice of the County Court, the county assessor and county surveyor, and the clerk, met in April 1871, and that Miller acted as their clerk.It was his business to keep a record of these proceedings.The board had ordered him to put in the assessment book of 1871, the assessment of 1870, on the Pacific Railroad, which had been omitted to be collected, and had not in fact been given to the collector.

Mr. Miller made the entry in the assessment book as directed, but omitted to keep a record of the order authorizing him so to do; but upon the suggestion of A. J. Seavy, the county attorney, who advised him that it was his duty to make out a true copy of the proceedings of the board, he, some months after the adjournment of the board made the following entry--“It appearing to the satisfaction of the board of equalization, that the Pacific R. R. Co. of...