Standard Life Ins. Co v. City Of Atlanta

• Citation: 151 Ga. 153,106 S.E. 110
• Decision Date: 18 February 1921
• Docket Number: (No. 1987.)
• Parties: STANDARD LIFE INS. CO. v. CITY OF ATLANTA.
• Court: Supreme Court of Georgia

151 Ga. 153

106 S.E. 110

STANDARD LIFE INS. CO.

v.CITY OF ATLANTA.

(No. 1987.)

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Feb. 18, 1921.

(Syllabus by Editorial Staff.)

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; J. T. Pendleton, Judge.

Action by the Standard Life Insurance Company against the City of Atlanta. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

See, also, 149 Ga. 501, 101 S. E. 122.

Candler, Thomson & Hirsch of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

J. L. Mayson and J. M. Wood, both of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

ATKINSON, J. It is declared in the Civil Code, § 980:

"Every fire insurance company and life insurance company incorporated under the laws of this state, and doing business on the legal reserve plan, shall be required to return for taxation all of its real estate as other real estate is returned, and all of the personal property owned by such company shall be returned as other personal property is returned for taxation, and the value of the personal property owned by it shall be ascertained in the following manner: From the total value of the assets held by the company, both real and personal, shall be deducted the assessed value of all the real estate owned by the company in this state, the nontaxable bonds deposited by the company with the state treasurer, and the amount of the reserve or net value of its policies required by law to be held bythe company for its policy holders and which belong to such policy holders; the remainder shall be the value of the personal property owned by and taxable against such company."

Held:

1. When considered in connection with the preceding part of the statute, the words "total value of the assets held by the company" refer to assets owned by the company. "Reserve, " as employed in the latter part of the statute, refers to property not designed to be taxed as property of the company. Under such construction, deduction of "reserve" from "total value" of the assets held by the company, while not expressly exempting the "reserve" as such, would accomplish a result amounting to the same thing, namely, a reduction of the ascertainable value of the personal property of the company equal to the amount of the reserve.

2. So much of the statute as refers to method for ascertaining the value of personal property is violative of the Constitution, article 7, section 2, paragraphs 1, 2, 4 (Civil Code, §§ 6553, 6554, 6556), providing that taxes shall be uniform and ad valorem and prohibiting the exemption of property...