Plaintiff v. The County-Court Of Taylor County.

• Citation: 15 W.Va. 190
• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Decision Date: 10 May 1879
• Parties: Armstrong et al. v. The County-Court of Taylor County.

15 W.Va. 190

Armstrong et al.

v.The County-Court of Taylor County.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Decided May 10, 1879.

In a proceeding by citizens, inhabitants and tax-payers of Taylor county for a writ of prohibition against the county-court of said county, to prohibit them from proceeding to reduce the amount of taxes assessed and levied upon the property of The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in said county, and from accepting and receiving a less sum from said company, and from making an agreement with said company thereafter to accept and receive from said company for assessment and levy a valuation of all the property thereof in said county, at $320,000.00. Held:

1. That said company has such an interest in the question presented, that it should have been made a party respondent and have had notice of the pendency of this proceeding.

2. The declaration in prohibition showing such an interest in said company, it is demurrable for the want of proper parties, the company not having been made a party respondent.

A writ of error to a judgment of the circuit court ot Taylor county, rendered on the 14th day of May, 1877, in an action in said court then pending, wherein Adolphus Armstrong and others were plaintiffs and The county-court of Taylor county was defendant, granted on the petition of said plaintiffs.

Hon. Charles S. Lewis, late judge of the second judicial circuit, rendered the judgment complained of.

The facts of the case sufficiently appear in the opinion of the Court.

James Morrow, Jr., for the plaintiffs in error, cited the following authorities

Cooley on Taxation, 1-4; 8 How. 82; Const. W. Va. 1863, Art. VIII; Id. Art. IV, §§35, 36, 37; Id. 1872, Art, X; Id. Art. VI, §30; 7 Wall. 77; Cooley on Taxation 32, 33, 34 et seq.; 10 Cal. 402; 19 Wall. 655; 4 Pet. 563; 47 Cal. 646; Code, eh. 29; Acts 1872-3, ch. 117; Id. 220; Acts 1875, ch. 54; Acts 1877, ch. 109; Code 1869, ch. 29, §67; Cooley Const. Lira. (2d ed.) 130; Id. 189 and notes.

There was no appearance for the defendant in error.

Moore, Judge, delivered the opinion of the Court: A. Armstrong and sixty other citizens, inhabitants of and taxpayers in the county of Taylor, in behalf of themselves and all other citizens, inhabitants and tax-payers of said county, except the members of the county-court of said county, presented a petition to the judge of the circuit court of Taylor county, praying a writ of prohibition against the county-court of said county. The petition substantially alleges that the property of The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, including the Parkersburg Branch road, known as the North West Virginia Railroad, is assessed with county-taxes, and charged with the payment thereof within and for the county of Taylor for the years trom 1864 to 1875, both inclusive, aggregating $79,869.27. That none of said taxes have been paid by said company. That said county-court on the 20th day of September, 1875, made an order "in effect releasing the said railroad company from the payment of $59,869.27 of the said taxes so assessed upon the payment by the said company of the sum of $20,000.00, part of the taxes so assessed; and the said county-court, in and by the same order, in effect assessed and fixed the value of all the property of said railroad company, including the said branch road, at the sum of $320,000.00, on and from which in the future to levy and collect county-tax in said county, for its purposes, and thereby in effect said county-court excluded or released from future taxation in said county all other or additional value which the property of said company may now have or have in the future."

The petition charges that said county-court had no jurisdiction, and is proceeding without jurisdiction to release the said company from the payment of said taxes of $59,869.27, and to assess or fix the value of the property of said company for future taxation in said county for county-purposes at the value of...