St. Louis & S. F. R. Co. v. Tate

• Decision Date: 11 March 1913
• Docket Number: Case Number: 2382
• Citation: 35 Okla. 563,1913 OK 192,130 P. 941
• Parties: ST. LOUIS & S. F. R. CO. v. TATE, County Treasurer, et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1913 OK 192

130 P. 941

35 Okla. 563

ST. LOUIS & S. F. R. CO. v. TATE, County Treasurer, et al.

Case Number: 2382

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: March 11, 1913

Syllabus

¶0 1. TOWNSHIPS--Levy of Taxes--Township Board--Budget. Comp. Laws 1909, secs. 7624-7626, 8730-8735, construed, and held to require the township board of directors to make out an estimate of the amount of money necessary to defray the township expenses during the ensuing year; the same to be attested and filed with the clerk of the county to enable the county commissioners to proceed with the levy.

2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS--School Tax--Estimate of Expenditures. Constitution, art. 10, sec. 19, Comp. Laws 1909, secs. 8056, 8093, 8117, construed, and held to require the local legislative body of the school district to distribute the tax voted at the annual school meeting of the district in payment of an estimate of the expenditures authorized to be incurred by Comp. Laws 1909, sec. 8056, and thus show for what purpose the tax was levied, and certify the same to the district clerk.

3. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS--Incorporated Town Tax--Levy-- Collection. Constitution, art. 10, sec. 19, construed, and held to require the board of trustees of an incorporated town, in assessing annual taxes pursuant to Comp. Laws 1909, sec. 847, and in order to specify distinctly the purpose for which said tax is levied, by resolution or order, to adopt an estimate of expenditures and fix a tax levy to raise it and certify the same to the county commissioners, to be by them levied and collected as other taxes.

4. TAXATION--Excessive Levy--Collection--Injunction. Where, in certain school districts, towns, and townships, a tax of a certain number of mills, for the purpose of paying their respective estimates of expenses for the ensuing year, was levied when a lesser levy would be more than sufficient to raise the amount necessary to pay said estimates, and where the lesser has been paid, and where the county treasurer and the sheriff are threatening to collect from plaintiff the balance, held that said balance is excessive and illegal, and that it was error to refuse to restrain its collection.

Error from District Court, Noble County; W. M. Bowles, Judge.

Suit by the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company against J. B. Tate, as County Treasurer of Noble County, and another. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

W. F. Evans and R. A. Kleinschmidt, for plaintiff in error.

H. E. St. Clair, Deputy Co. Atty., for defendants in error.

TURNER, J.

¶1 This is an action brought by the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, plaintiff in error, against the county treasurer and the sheriff of Noble county to enjoin the collection of certain taxes which defendants were threatening to collect from said company, assessed against its property for the fiscal year July 1, 1909, to June 30, 1910.

¶2 On April 16, 1910, judgment was rendered and entered in favor of defendants, and plaintiff brings the case here. It contends that the taxes levied for that year on its property were excessive in certain school districts, towns and townships in Noble county; that the amount raised therefor exceeded the necessary expense in those taxing jurisdictions, as shown by the estimate of expenses filed by the respective officers thereof. Prior to the suit, plaintiff paid said county all that was exacted, save the sum of $ 416.17. The question for us to determine is whether this sum in the aggregate is excessive and void. Taking for example, one of each class of the taxing jurisdictions involved pursuant to the allegations of the petition, the facts disclose:

"As to the town or city of Morrison, the estimate of the amount required to be raised by taxes for the fiscal year in question, as filed with the county clerk, was $ 612.06. The levy made was five mills. The total valuation of all property in said town was $ 204,046. Therefore, a five-mill levy would produce $ 1,020. The valuation of the property of plaintiff in said town was $ 23,397."

¶3 As to this incorporated town it is claimed:

"* * * That, as a part of the amount of taxes still claimed by said defendant, J. B. Tate, as such county treasurer, to be due from said plaintiff, there is the sum of $ 23.40, being a levy of one mill for Morrison city, in the county of Noble, state of Oklahoma, which is in excess of the lawful requirements for said Morrison city for the year in question, and said levy so claimed constitutes an illegal and unjust demand, which said Morrison city had no power or authority to make."

¶4 The facts further disclose that:

"In Morrison township the estimate of the amount necessary to be raised by taxation was $ 1,523.13. The levy was three mills. The total valuation of all property in the township was $ 682,860. The levy would therefore raise $ 2,046. The total valuation of the property of plaintiff in this township was $ 127,332."

¶5 As to this township it is claimed:

"That as a part of the amount of taxes still claimed by said defendant, J. B. Tate, as such county treasurer, to be due from said plaintiff, there is the sum of $ 63.67, being a levy of five-tenths mills for Morrison township, in the county of Noble, state of Oklahoma, which is in excess of the lawful requirements for said township for the year in question, and said levy so claimed constitutes an illegal and unjust demand, which said township had no power or authority to make."

¶6 By plaintiff it is urged that:

"Given the assessed value of property upon which to levy a tax, there are certain provisions of law which are mandatory and must be complied with before a valid levy can be made: (1) It must be ascertained, as required by law, what the actual need of the township, school district, or town is by the officer or officers authorized to ascertain same. It is a judicial prerequisite to a valid levy that the needs of a taxing jurisdiction be thus ascertained and furnished the body making the levy prior to the time the levy is made. (2) The levy must not exceed the constitutional or statutory limit, and should be fixed so as to produce only the necessary expense of the taxing jurisdiction for the ensuing year. The spirit of the Oklahoma law is admittedly that taxing jurisdictions should be required to make an estimate of the amount required for such expenses during the ensuing fiscal year. As regards both townships and school districts, such an estimate is specifically required by law."

¶7 In other words, the plaintiff contends that the statute requires that these three classes of taxing jurisdictions shall make an estimate of the amount required annually to defray the expense of the jurisdiction, and that this was done, but that the amount raised by the levy was in excess of the estimate, and void as to that excess. On the other hand, it is contended that no such estimate is required; that those filed with the county clerk are brutum fulmen; and the levy, being within the constitutional limit, must stand. Plaintiff's contention is the law.

¶8 After providing in Comp. Laws 1909, sec. 7625, for making the county levy, the next section provides:

"All levies for cities, towns and townships and school district taxes for the period hereinbefore indicated, shall be made in the manner provided by law on or before the second Monday in July of each year, and shall be certified to the county clerk immediately thereafter, and by him extended upon the tax rolls in the manner provided by law."

¶9 After section 8726 makes it the duty of the township board "to levy all taxes for township, road and bridge purposes," and section 8730 defines township charges, section 8731 reads:

"The money necessary to defray the township charges of each township shall be levied on taxable property in each township in the manner prescribed in the general revenue law for state and county purposes"

--which means that such levy is proceeded with by the board of county commissioners in the manner prescribed by section 7625, supra, which is based on an estimate. But such estimates are specifically required to be filed by townships.

¶10 Comp. Laws 1909, sec. 8735 (Wilson's Rev. & Ann. St. 1903, sec. 6685), reads:

"The township board of directors shall make out an account of the amount of money necessary to defray the township expenses during the next ensuing year; said amount shall be made out not more than sixty nor less than twenty days prior to the meeting of the county commissioners at which the assessment for county purposes is made. Said account shall be signed by the president of the board and attested and filed with the clerk of the county on or before the first day of said session of the county commissioners, who shall cause the same to be placed upon the tax books of said township: Provided, that said expense shall not, together with the amount levied for road purposes and special bridge tax, exceed in any one year one hundred cents on the one hundred dollars valuation."

¶11 This was, in effect, our holding in Nelson, Sheriff, v. Oklahoma City et al., 24 Okla. 617, 104 P. 42, on the strength of which we hold that when the statute says, as it does, that the directors of the township shall make out an account of the amount of money necessary to defray the township expense, it means that they shall make a statement or estimate of the amount required annually to defray the expense of that jurisdiction.

¶12 The same is true as to school districts. Comp. Laws 1909, sec. 8056, provides:

"The inhabitants qualified to vote at a school meeting lawfully assembled, shall have power * * * to vote annually a tax not exceeding two per cent. on all the taxable property in the district, as the meeting shall deem sufficient for the various school purposes, and distribute the amount as the meeting shall deem proper in the payment of teachers' wages, and to build, hire, or purchase a schoolhouse and to keep it in repair and to

...