State Bd. of Equalization v. People ex rel. Goggin

• Decision Date: 24 October 1901
• Citation: 191 Ill. 528,61 N.E. 339
• Parties: STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION et al. v. PEOPLE et rel. GOGGIN et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

191 Ill. 528

61 N.E. 339

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION et al.

v.PEOPLE et rel. GOGGIN et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 24, 1901.

Appeal from circuit court, Sangamon county; Owen P. Thompson, Judge.

Mandamus by the people on the relation of Catherine Goggin and another against the state board of equalization and the members thereof as individuals. From a judgment awarding the writ, respondents appeal. Affirmed.John S. Miller and Merritt Starr, for appellants.

I. T. Greenacre and E. S. Smith, for appellees.

HAND, J.

This is a petition for a writ of mandamus, filed in the circuit court of Sangamon county by the state's attorney of said county, upon the relation of Catherine Goggin and Robert C. Steele, against the state board of equalization and the members thereof (naming them) to coerce said board, and the members thereof, forthwith to value and assess, in the manner provided by law, the capital stock, including franchises, of each of the following named corporations: Chicago City Railway Company, West Chicago Street Railroad Company, North Chicago Street Railroad Company, Chicago Union Traction Company, People's Gaslight & Coke Company, Chicago Telephone Company, Chicago Edison Company, Chicago Consolidated Traction Company, Chicago Electric TransitCompany, Chicago & Jefferson Urban Transit Company, Evanston Electric Railway Company, Cicero & Proviso Street Railway Company, North Chicago Electric Railway Company, North Side Electric Street Railway Company, Ogden Street Railway Company, Chicago North Shore Street Railway Company, Chicago Electric Traction Company, Chicago General Railway Company, South Chicago City Railway Company, General Electric Railway Company, Chicago West Division Railway Company, Chicago Passenger Railway Company, and North Chicago City Railway Company. The petition alleges that on April 1, 1900, said corporations, and each of them, were duly organized under the laws of the state of Illinois, one of which was a gas company, one a telephone company, one an electric light company, and each of the others a street railway company; that they were all located in and had tangible and intangible property subject to assessment and taxation in Cook county, Ill.; that the fair cash value of the capital stock, including franchises, of said corporations, over and above the assessed value of their tangible property, aggregated the sum of $235,000,000, and that said state board, and the members thereof, have refused to value and assess said capital stock, including franchises, as provided by law, and intend this year, as heretofore, not to value or assess said capital stock, including franchises, upon a basis of the fair cash value thereof, but intend to value and assess the same in such manner as to cause said corporations, and each of them, to pay no capital sotck tax.

After a demurrer had been overruled to said petition, all the respondents, with the exception of Solomon Simon, who filed an answer confessing the same, filed joint and several answers thereto, admitting the existence and location of said corporations, but denying that all of said corporations had tangible and intangible property in Cook county on April 1, 1900; averring that under the law the state board of equalization, and none other, is vested with jurisdiction and power to value and assess the capital stock of said corporations; denying that the respondents had refused to value and assess the property of said corporations; averring that the state board of equalization was in session and had not completed its work at the time of the filing of the petition herein, and denying all other allegations contained in said petition and that the petitioner was entitled to the relief prayed for. A replication having been filed and a jury waived, a trial was had before the court, and on May 1, 1901, a judgment was rendered by the court against the respondents, awarding the writ of mandamus as prayed for, except as to the Chicago Electric Traction Company, the Chicago General Railway Company, and the General Electric Railway Company, from which judgment an appeal has been prosecuted to this court.

It is first contended the action and judgment of the state board of equalization with respect to the existence or value of the property of the corporations in question are not subject to review by the courts. The state board of equalization on the 3d day of December, and during the time intervening between the filing of the petition and rendition of judgment, adjourned its session for the year 1900 without having valued and assessed at any amount the capital stock and franchises of 13 of said corporations, and after having valued and assessed the capital stock and franchises of 7 of said corporations at an amount so low, as is contended by the petitioner, as to amount, in law, to a fraudulent valuation and assessment, and therefore to amount to no assessment at all. The question, therefore, presented here for our determination is not whether the court has power to review the judgment of the state board of equalization in the fixing of values upon property assessed by it, but whether, when property has been wrongfully omitted which is taxable, or fraudulently assessedat so low a rate as to amount, in law, to no assessment at all, the court may compel said board to perform its duty by assessing said property. Section 1 of article 9 of the constitution of 1870 (Hurd's Rev. St. 1899, p. 68) provides: ‘The general assembly shall provide such revenue as may be needful by levying a tax, by valuation, so that every person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her or its property-such value to be ascertained by some person or persons, to be elected or appointed in such manner as the general assembly shall direct, and not otherwise; but the general assembly shall have power to tax * * * persons or corporations owning or using franchises and privileges, in such manner as it shall from time to time direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it operates.’ Paragraph 4 of section 3 of chapter 120 (Hurd's Rev. St. 1899, p. 1393) reads as follows: ‘The capital stock of all companies and associations now or hereafter created under the laws of this state except those required to be assessed by the local assessors, as hereinafter provided, shall be so valued by the state board of equalization as to ascertain and determine respectively, the fair cash value of such capital stock, including the franchise, over and above the assessed value of the tangible property of such company or association; such board shall adopt such rules and principles for ascertaining the fair cash value of such capital stock, as to it may seem equitable and just, and such rules and principles when so adopted, if not inconsistent with this act, shall be as binding and of the same effect as if contained in this act, subject however, to such change, alteration or amendment as may be found from time to time, to be necessary by said board: provided, that in all cases where the tangible property or capital stock of any company or association is assessed under this act, the shares of capital stock of such company or association shall not be assessed or taxed in this state. This clause shall not apply to the capital stock, or shares of capital stock of banks organized under the general banking laws of this state or under any special charter heretofore granted by the legislature of this state: provided, further, that companies and associations organized for purely manufacturing purposes or for the mining and sale of coal, or printing or for publishing of newspapers or for the improving and breeding of stock, shall be assessed by the local assessors in like manner as the property of individuals is required to be assessed.’ Paragraph 1 of said section 3 (Hurd's Rev. St. 1899, p. 1393) provides: ‘All personal property, except as herein otherwise directed, shall be valued at its fair cash value;’ and section 108 of said chapter (Hurd's Rev. St. 1899, p. 1412) provides: ‘The state board of equalization shall assess the capital stock of each company or association, respectively, now or hereafter incorporated under the laws of this state, in the manner hereinbefore in this act provided. The respective assessments so made (other than of the capital stock of railroad and telegraph companies) shall be certified by the auditor, under direction of said board, to the county clerk of the respective counties in which such companies or associations are located, and said clerk shall extend the taxes for all purposes on the respective amounts so certified the same as may be levied on the other property in such towns, districts, villages or cities in which such companies or associations are located.’ By virtue of said constitutional provision and sections of the statute, the state board of equalization, in assessing the capital stock and franchises of corporations, does not act as a board of review, but as an original assessor, and the duty resting upon said board to value and assess the fair cash value of the capital stock, including the franchises, over and above the assessed value of the tangible property of all companies and associations now or hereafter created under the laws of this state, except those required to be assessed by the local assessors, is mandatory, and the performance of such duty, when omitted or evaded, may be enforced by mandamus. Section 32 of chapter 120 (Hurd's Rev. St. 1899, p. 1400) provides that all corporations and associations incorporated under the laws of this state, other than banks organized under any special or general laws of this state, and the corporations required to be assessed by the local assessors, shall, in addition to other property required to be listed, make out and deliver to the assessor a sworn statement of the amount of their capital stock, setting forth particularly the name and location of the...