Sheboygan Cnty. v. City of Sheboygan

• Decision Date: 14 March 1882
• Citation: 54 Wis. 415,11 N.W. 598
• Parties: SHEBOYGAN COUNTY v. CITY OF SHEBOYGAN.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

54 Wis. 415

11 N.W. 598

SHEBOYGAN COUNTY

v.CITY OF SHEBOYGAN.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Filed March 14, 1882.

Appeal from circuit court Sheboygan county.

Appeal from an order sustaining a general demurrer to the complaint. It is alleged in the complaint that, included in the taxes imposed upon certain property in the defendant city, in 1878, returned delinquent by the city to the county treasurer, and credited to the former, was a special assessment for grading, charged against certain lots, amounting to $362.60; that this amount was charged back to the city by order of the county board of supervisors and apportioned to the city in 1880; and that the city refuses to pay the same. Judgment for that sum, and certain collection fees, is demanded.J. Q. Adams, for appellant.

Conrad Krez, for respondent.

LYON, J.

It is not alleged or claimed that the special assessment or tax was not legally levied, or that it is not a valid charge against the lots upon which it was imposed. The action is based solely upon the proposition that in his settlement with the city treasurer the county treasurer should not have allowed the amount of the grading tax or assessment, and therefore that the county had a valid claim against the city for the sum thus improperly credited to the city. The learned circuit judge held that the city was entitled to the credit, and hence sustained the demurrer to the complaint. We are satisfied that the ruling is correct, and the grounds of our opinion will be briefly stated.

The law governing the settlement between the two treasurers is contained in the Revised Statutes, p. 360, § 1114. This is made perfectly clear by the provisions of the charter of the defendant city, contained in Laws 1877, c. 29, §§ 10 and 14, and of section 4986, Rev. St. Section 1114 provides that the town treasurer (or, as applied to this case, the city treasurer) shall be credited by the county treasurer with the amount of unpaid taxes returned by him, and that from thenceforth the same shall belong to the county. No discrimination is made between different kinds of taxes, or the different purposes for which they are imposed. The return may include state, county, town, or city, ward, school, or road taxes, or any special assessment whatever, authorized by law. These are not separately returned, but all unpaid taxes of every description on a given parcel of land are massed, and the aggregate amount of all is alone stated in the delinquent return. Section 1113.

If the return of the city treasurer, in the present case, was made in strict conformity with the statute, it does not show that it included any special assessment. To ascertain that fact, and the amount of such assessment, the county treasurer would be compelled to search the city records.

The principle of the statute is that the county shall assume all delinquent taxes of every nature which have been legally levied in the several towns of the county, and in those municipalities therein which, like the defendant city, are under the general statute, and the county reimburses itself out of the...