State v. Henderson

• Decision Date: 19 February 1901
• Citation: 60 S.W. 1093,160 Mo. 190
• Parties: STATE ex rel. FATH et al. v. HENDERSON, Probate Judge.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

60 S.W. 1093

160 Mo. 190

STATE ex rel. FATH et al. v. HENDERSON, Probate Judge.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

February 19, 1901.

COLLATERAL INHERITANCE TAX — VALIDITY — SPECIAL FUNDS — APPROPRIATIONS — UNIFORMITY — EXEMPTIONS — CERTIORARI.

1. The granting of a writ of certiorari by the supreme court rests in the discretion of the court.

2. Act April 19, 1899, authorizes the taxation of collateral inheritances, and provides that the money so received shall be deposited to the credit of the state seminary fund, to be used only for educational purposes. Const. art. 4, § 43, requires all state revenues to go into the treasury, and prohibits their diversion or appropriation by the general assembly, except by appropriations for certain specific purposes, in the order prescribed therein. Held, that the statute was not invalid, in requiring the money to be paid to a certain fund, as the constitutional provision does not require all state money to become a part of a general fund, to be used for the prescribed purposes only as appropriated in the order named, but only prescribes an order for the making of appropriations.

3. Act April 19, 1899, authorizing the taxation of collateral inheritances, and requiring the money so received to be used for educational purposes, and which forbids its expenditure except by regular appropriations, is not an appropriation of money, and is not in conflict with Const. art. 4, § 43, which requires appropriations to be made for certain specific subjects in a certain prescribed order, or with Const. art. 10, § 19, forbidding appropriations for a period more than two years after the passing of the appropriation act.

4. Act April 19, 1899, imposing an inheritance tax, and apportioning the tax according to the value of the property inherited, is not void for want of uniformity, as imposing a burden on certain property not imposed on similar property.

5. Act April 19, 1899, imposing an inheritance tax of an equal per cent. on all collaterals, but exempting all lineals, husband or wife, and adopted children, is not in violation of Const. art. 10, § 3, requiring taxes to be uniform on the same class of subjects.

6. Act April 19, 1899, imposing a collateral inheritance tax, but exempting bequests to charitable purposes, without limiting the amount thereof, is not in violation of Const. art. 10, §§ 6, 7, prohibiting laws exempting property held for charitable purposes from taxation in excess of a certain amount, since it is not a taxation of property.

In banc. Certiorari by the state, on the relation of Oliver J. Fath, as executor of the estate of Anna Puff, and another, against William W. Henderson, probate judge, to review the assessment of a collateral inheritance tax. Motion by relators to quash the record. Denied.

Silas B. Jones, Lyon & Swarts, C. W. Wilson (amicus curiæ), and Daniel Dillon, for relators. W. M. Williams, for respondent.

GANTT, J.

On July 11, 1900, the probate court of the city of St. Louis, of which Hon. William W. Henderson is the sole judge, in the course of the administration of the estate of Anna Puff, deceased, assessed a collateral inheritance tax of $200 upon a legacy of $4,000 bequeathed by the will of said Anna Puff to Sophia Puff, one of the relators herein. The assessment of said tax was made strictly in accordance with the act of the general assembly of Missouri approved April 19, 1899. The legatee and the executor voluntarily appeared in the probate court at the time of said assessment and objected thereto on the ground that the said act was unconstitutional and the court was without jurisdiction in the premises, which objections were overruled. On the next day said relators moved the court to set aside its said order and assessment on the ground that said act was in conflict with section 43, art. 4, of the constitution of this state, and section 19, art. 10, and section 5, art. 11, of the constitution. The said legatee was a collateral relative of the testatrix, and if the tax is constitutional this legacy falls within the act. The validity of the statute is the one matter for determination here, the record having been removed into this court upon a writ of certiorari issued out of this court. In this court, relators move to quash the said record of assessment. The act in question was passed by the general assembly, and is contained in the Session Acts of 1899 (page 328), and has been incorporated into the first volume of the Revised Statutes of Missouri of 1899 at page 186 and pages following. So much of said act as is pertinent for our decision is as follows:

"Section 1. All property which shall pass by will, or by the intestate law of this state, from any person who may die seized or possessed of the same while a resident of this state, or, if decedent was not a resident of this state at the time of death, which property or any part thereof shall be within this state, or any interest therein or income therefrom, which shall be transferred by deed, grant, bargain, sale or gift, made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor, bargainor, vendor or donor, to any person or persons, or to any body politic or corporate, either directly or in trust or otherwise, or by reason whereof any person or body politic or corporate shall become beneficially entitled in possession or expectancy, to any property or the income thereof, other than to or for the use of the father, mother, husband, wife, legally adopted children or direct lineal descendant of the testator, intestate, grantor, bargainor, vendor or donor, except property conveyed for some educational, charitable or religious purpose exclusively, shall be and is subject to the payment of a collateral inheritance tax of five dollars for each and every one hundred dollars of the clear market value of such property, and at and after the same rate for every less amount, to be paid to the collector of revenue of the proper county, and for the purposes of this act the city of St. Louis shall be affected through its corresponding officers as if it were a county, for the use of the state as hereinafter provided; and for the enforcement and collection of such tax there is hereby created against the property affected thereby a first lien in favor of the state of Missouri, upon which a civil action may be prosecuted in any court having proper jurisdiction; and all heirs, next of kin, legatees and devisees, administrators, executors and trustees, grantees, vendees and donees shall be liable for any and all such taxes until the same shall have been paid as hereinafter directed: provided, that all collateral inheritance taxes shall be sued for within five years after they are due and legally demandable, otherwise they shall cease to be a lien as against any purchasers of the property: provided, further, that the word `property,' as used in this section, shall be taken to mean the property or interest therein, passing or transferred to individual legatees, devisees, heirs, next of kin, grantees, vendees or donees, and not as the property or interest therein of the testator, intestate, grantor, bargainor, vendor, or donor."

"Sec. 3. The collector of each county shall, on or before the fifteenth day of each month, pay to the state treasurer all taxes, collected or received by him, under the provisions of this act, before the first day of said month, deducting therefrom his commissions, as provided in section twenty-two of this act, and all lawful disbursements made by him, in accordance with the provisions of this act, upon the certificate of the probate judge of his county, of which collection and payment he shall make a report under oath to the state auditor, on or before the fifth day of each month, stating for what estate paid, and in such form and containing such particulars as the state auditor may prescribe; and for any failure to make such monthly payments he shall be subject to the penalty prescribed by section seven thousand six hundred and thirty-six (7636) of the Revised Statutes of 1889.

"Sec. 4. The moneys received by the state treasurer under the provisions of this act shall be deposited in the state treasury to the credit of the fund now existing in the state treasury and known as the `State Seminary Moneys,' for the maintenance, support, and better equipment of the buildings, apparatus, books, instruction, etc., of the university of the state of Missouri, to an amount not exceeding in any one year the equivalent of one-tenth of one mill upon every dollar of the assessed valuation of taxable property of this state for the said year: provided, that one-eighth of all such moneys so received shall be devoted to the use of the school of mines and metallurgy, a department of the said university: provided, further, that if the net amount deposited in any one year by the state treasurer under the provisions of this act, to the credit of the `State Seminary Moneys' be not equivalent to one-tenth of one mill upon every dollar of the assessed valuation of taxable property of this state for the said year, it shall be the duty of the state treasurer to make good this deficiency out of the first moneys received under the provisions of this act in the next succeeding year: provided, further, that all said moneys shall be disbursed in pursuance of regular appropriations of the general assembly, in accordance with the provisions of section five thousand six hundred and ninety-one (5691) of the Revised Statutes of 1889.

"Sec. 5. The moneys received by the state treasurer under the provisions of this act which shall exceed in any one year the amount required by section four of this act to be deposited to the credit of the `State Seminary Moneys,' shall be deposited in the state treasury to the credit of a fund to be known as the `Educational Funds,' which is hereby created and established. The moneys deposited in the said fund shall be appropriated by the general assembly for...