Scollard v. Edwards
| Decision Date | 26 February 1907 |
| Citation | 194 Mass. 77,80 N.E. 4 |
| Parties | SCOLLARD v. EDWARDS. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Geo.
A. Flynn, for appellant.
C. H Tyler and B. E. Eames, for appellee.
Rev Laws, c. 13, § 33, is as follows: 'If a person assessed for a tax dies or becomes insolvent before the payment thereof, or if a tax is assessed upon the estate of a deceased person, the executor, administrator or assignee shall, if a demand has been made upon him therefor, forthwith upon receipt of any money applicable to the payment of the tax, pay the same, and in default shall be personally liable therefor as for his own tax.' The present suit is an action at law founded on this statute. The plaintiff avers in the declaration that he is collector of taxes of the city of Boston, that a tax assessed against A. B. Turner & Bro. was committed to him for collection, that a demand was made upon them for payment that being insolvent they assigned to the defendant by an instrument in writing all their property for the benefit of their creditors, that the plaintiff demanded of the defendant payment of the tax, and that the defendant as assignee has received sufficient money applicable to the payment of the tax to pay the same, but has refused to pay it. As a conclusion from these facts the plaintiff says that the defendant now owes him the amount of the tax with interest thereon. Neither in the declaration nor in the argument has any claim been made except under the statute above quoted. Neither the city of Boston nor the plaintiff was a party to the assignment, and there is no averment on which an action at law can be maintained unless there is a liability by reason of this statute.
We are of opinion that the plaintiff has misconceived the purpose and meaning of the legislation. By Rev. Laws, c. 15, § 8 after the death of a person who was taxed, the collector might maintain an action in his own name for the tax, in like manner as for his own debt. St. 1848, p. 734, c. 235, in terms extended this remedy so as to make it apply 'to a tax lawfully assessed upon the personal estate of any deceased person.' By St. 1852, p. 168, c. 234, it was provided that a tax assessed upon the personal estate of any deceased person, before the appointment of an administrator executor, if otherwise legal, might be enforced in the same manner as if the executor or administrator had been appointed when the assessment was made. These acts were embodied in Gen. St. 1860, c. 12, § 20, and in Pub. St. 1882, c. 12, § 21, without material change. All this legislation was to provide a simple and easy way for the collection of a tax from the legal representatives of a deceased person,...
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City of Boston v. Turner
...hands as such assignee to pay the taxes and all other claims entitled to preference, so far as known. After the prior decision in 194 Mass. 77, 80 N.E. 4, the action law there pending was amended by leave of the superior court into the suit in equity now before us. The first question to be ......
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Bartlett v. Fufts
...deceased person notwithstanding the complications that might arise from the laws relative to the settlement of estates. Scollard v. Edwards, 194 Mass. 77, 78, 80 N. E. 4;Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 87 N. E. 634;Whiton v. Balch, 203 Mass. 576, 578, 89 N. E. 1045. The record shows that t......
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Bartlett v. Tufts
...of a deceased person notwithstanding the complications that might arise from the laws relative to the settlement of estates. Scollard v. Edwards, 194 Mass. 77 , 78. v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190 . Whiton v. Balch, 203 Mass. 576 , 578. The record shows that the defendant as executrix has received......