State Bank of Virginia v. City of Richmond

• Decision Date: 07 May 1884
• Citation: 79 Va. 113
• Parties: STATE BANK OF VIRGINIA v. CITY OF RICHMOND.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

79 Va. 113

STATE BANK OF VIRGINIA v. CITY OF RICHMOND.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

May 7, 1884

Error to judgment of circuit court of city of Richmond, rendered 19th December, 1874, in an action at law wherein the State Bank of Virginia was plaintiff, and the city of Richmond was defendant. Under an ordinance passed 8th April, 1872, a tax of $1.25 on the $100 value of personal property, moneys and credits, including capital stock, & c., within said city a tax of $3,126.25 was assessed upon the capital stock of the said bank, consisting of $159,804 of paid up stock and $90,296 of demand notes given by the stockholders to the bank and held by it, for unpaid up stock, and bearing interest. The capital stock thus assessed was owned by persons living in the city, out of the city but within the state, and beyond the state. The tax-bill showed that the assessment was on " the money, bonds and personal property of the bank." The tax not having been paid when due, the penalty, ten per centum, prescribed by the ordinance, was added, and the whole was finally paid under protest. The bank then sued for the recovery of the excess alleged to have been assessed, that is, the assessment on the demand notes and on the stock owned by persons living out of the city. The judgment was in favor of the city, and the bank obtained a writ of error to this court.

Guy & Gilliam, for the plaintiff in error.

A M. Keiley, for the defendant in error.

OPINION

FAUNTLEROY J.

The material facts disclosed by the record are as follows, viz On the 1st February, 1882, there had been subscribed to the capital stock of the bank 2,501 shares, of $100 each, making a subscribed capital stock of $250,100. There had been paid in by the shareholders on their subscriptions $159,804, and demand notes were given for the unpaid portion of the subscriptions, $90,296. The value of the share, if fully paid up, was $100.

By an ordinance of the city, passed April 8th, 1872, a taxation of $1.25 on the one hundred dollars value of various kinds of property, was provided for. Under this ordinance the city assessed upon the " money, bonds and personal property" of the State Bank of Virginia, the tax of $3,126.25, being at the rate of $1.25 on $250,100, the whole taxable capital of the bank. Upon the failure of the said bank to pay this aforesaid tax, or one-half thereof, as demanded, on or before the 1st July, 1872, the city, in December, 1872, enforced by levy the payment of the whole amount, with ten per centum penalty added ($312.63) making the whole amount $3,483.38. After this payment was made, under compulsion and protest, the said bank sued the city of Richmond in the circuit court of the said city, to recover so much of the said tax as was unlawfully imposed and collected. The cause was regularly matured, and, by consent of parties, a jury was waived, and the whole matter of law and fact was submitted to the court, upon facts agreed. The court gave its judgment against the said bank, and affirmed the validity of the tax assessed and collected by the city of Richmond.

The plaintiff in error insists that the assessment on which the tax was levied, which was pronounced to be lawful by the court below, was an assessment of the shares of stock at their par value, and not, as the city ordinance required, at their market value; that the shares of non-resident shareholders were taxed, and...