St Joseph Co v. Steele
| Decision Date | 24 May 1897 |
| Docket Number | No. 256,256 |
| Citation | 42 L.Ed. 315,17 S.Ct. 925,167 U.S. 659 |
| Parties | ST. JOSEPH & G. I. R. CO. v. STEELE, Sheriff |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
The St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad Company, describing itself as a corporation created and subsisting under and by virtue of the laws of Kansas and Nebraska, and as a common carrier operating a railroad as a continuous line from the city of Grand Island, in the state of Nebraska, to the city of St. Joseph, in the state of Missouri, which railroad passes through Doniphan county, in the state of Kansas, filed in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Kansas a bill of complaint against R. M. Steele, sheriff of said Doniphan county, and a citizen of the state of Kansas, seeking to restrain the said Steele, as sheriff of Doniphan county, from levying upon and selling the complainant's property situated in said county for taxes assessed and levied against the same for the year 1892 by the assessing authorities of Doniphan county.
The defendant answered; and agreed statement of facts was filed; and, after argument a decree was entered dismissing the bill at plaintiff's costs. Thereupon an appeal was taken by the complainant to the United States circuit court of appeals for the Eighth circuit, where the decree of the circuit court was affirmed. 27 U. S. App. 436, 11 C. C. A. 470, and 63 Fed. 867. The case was then brought to this court on appeal.
John M. Thurston, for appellant.
P. L. Soper and J. H. Gillpatrick, for appellee.
Mr. Justice SHIRAS, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad Company, in its petition filed in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Kansas against R. M. Steele, sheriff of Doniphan county, Kan., alleged that the controversy in the case involved the construction of an act of congress approved July 14, 1870, granting to the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad Company the right to build a bridge and maintain the same across the Missouri river at or near St. Joseph, Mo.; and also of an act of congress approved March 5, 1872, authorizing and empowering the St. Joseph Bridge-Building Company to construct a bridge across the Missouri river at or near St. Joseph. Mo.; that said bridge was built under these acts, and that all of its revenue-producing facilities were derived therefrom, and that the controversy was over the right to tax this bridge.
But the other allegations of the bill disclose the case of a dispute arising under the taxing laws of the state of Kansas. One-half of said bridge is within Doniphan county. On May 16, 1892, the railroad company returned to the auditor of the state a list and schedule of its property and railroad, including that part of said bridge. Thereupon the state board of railroad assessors for the state of Kansas duly assessed, for the purposes of taxation for the year 1892, all the property of said railroad company; the county commissioners of Doniphan county, in pursuance of law, duly fixed and determined the amount of the tax which the railroad company was to pay for the year 1892, and the company duly paid the same to the treasurer of Doniphan county. Subsequently one George Manville, as trustee and assessor of Washington township in Doniphan county, made an assessment of that part of said bridge lying within said township, claiming that the same was subject to taxation in said township as an independent structure and as a toll bridge. Thereupon the county commissioners of Doniphan county, at their regular meeting in the month of June, 1892, acted upon said assessment, and, against the protest of the railroad company, levied upon said portion of the bridge lying within Washington township a tax for the year 1892.
The railroad company alleges in its bill that neither the county nor township authorities of Doniphan county have or had any authority or jurisdiction to assess and levy any taxes whatever upon the bridge property of the company in Doniphan county, but that the said state board of railroad assessors of Kansas had exclusive jurisdiction for assessing the said property of the company in said county, and asks for an injunction restraining the sheriff of said county from selling or offering for sale the said bridge property for the taxes so assessed against the same for the year 1892 by the local authorities of Doniphan county.
It thus appears tht the railroad company does not claim that, by virtue of...
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