State ex rel. Brown v. Union Trust Co.
| Decision Date | 06 June 1887 |
| Citation | 6 S.W. 867,92 Mo. 157 |
| Parties | The State ex rel. Brown, Collector, v. Union Trust Company et al., Appellants |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Pettis Circuit Court. -- Hon. J. P. Strother, Judge.
Reversed.
Thomas J. Portis and Thomas G. Portis for appellants.
G. P B. Jackson for respondent.
This suit is to recover certain taxes for the years 1876, 1878 and 1879, alleged to be due Pettis county from the defendants. The petition contains three counts -- the first being for the recovery of the taxes of 1876; the second for the taxes of 1878, and the third for the taxes of 1879. Plaintiff having recovered judgment, defendant appealed to this court.
It appears from the record before us that the property owned by defendant company on the first day of August, 1875, was equalized and assessed by the state board of equalization in 1876, and that the total valuation thereof apportioned to Pettis county was $ 380,126.86; that, in levying taxes thereon the county court, instead of levying and extending the rate which it levied on all other property owned by individuals on the first day of August, 1875, levied the rate which had been levied on general property owned by individuals on the first day of August, 1874. It further appears that the tax as levied was paid by the defendant in 1876, and that the taxes were designated in the receipt taken by defendant as the taxes of 1875.
Under the ruling of this court in the case of State ex rel. Pettis Co. v. Union Trust Co., 68 Mo. 463, the levy of said rate was erroneous, and according to the rule established in that case, the county court should have levied and extended on the property of defendant owned by it on the first day of August, 1875, and assessed by the state board, the same rates it extended on general property owned by individuals at the same time, and assessed by the county assessor. It further appears that in 1879 the county court, ignoring the action taken in 1876, in extending the wrong rate on the property of defendant owned by it on the first day of August, 1875, extended on said property, in conformity with the ruling in the case above cited, the same rate which, in 1876, it had extended on property owned by individuals on the first day of August, 1875, and it is for the whole amount of this tax that plaintiff sues in the first count of the petition without allowing defendant any credit for the amount actually paid under the wrong levy in 1876.
The case was tried by the circuit court on the theory that defendant was not entitled to a credit for the payment so made, which was a...
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