Walton County v. Morgan County
| Decision Date | 13 July 1904 |
| Citation | 48 S.E. 243,120 Ga. 548 |
| Parties | WALTON COUNTY et al. v. MORGAN COUNTY. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. The Constitution (Civ. Code 1895, § 5883) requires that taxation shall be uniform on "all property subject to be taxed within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax"; yet, as single tracts of land or manufacturing plants divided by county lines are not wholly in a single territorial limit, the Legislature may provide in which county the return, in such exceptional cases, shall be made.
2. In view of the provisions in Civ. Code 1895, § 5883, and Pol Code 1895,§ 820, all other land must be returned in the county where the land lies.
3. When construed in pari materia with Civ. Code 1895, § 5883, and Pol. Code 1895, § 820, the provision in Pol. Code 1895, § 826, that all other companies or persons shall make their returns to the receiver of the respective counties where the persons reside or the office of the company is located refers to personal property.
4. The provision in section 8 of the tax act of 1902 (Acts 1902, p 28) that manufacturing plants divided by county lines shall be returned in the county where the main buildings containing machinery of most of said buildings are located, does not, so far as real estate is concerned, vary the terms of the general law as contained in Pol. Code 1895, § 826.
5. In the absence of a statute, personal property is to be returned where the owner resides.
6. The General Assembly may fix the taxing situs of all tangible or intangible personal property, but it must be by general law and classified according to the nature of the property, and not according to the nature of the owner.
7. The General Assembly may provide that fixtures, machinery, or improvements in manufacturing plants, or personal property attached thereto or in actual use therein, shall be returned and taxed with the real estate.
8. Merchandise, cotton, manufactured goods, or personal property not attached to or used in connection with such real estate, must, under Pol. Code 1895,§ 826, be taxed where the owner lives, and the same rule must be applied to similar property owned by a manufacturing company.
9. The petition was not demurrable. The act of August 17, 1903 (Acts 1903, p. 16), providing a remedy, did not affect any right of the parties.
Error from Superior Court, Walton County; R. B. Russell, Judge.
Action by the county of Morgan against the county of Walton and others. There was judgment for plaintiff, and defendants bring error. Reversed.
The High Shoals Manufacturing Company owns a single manufacturing plant, with dam, water power, land, buildings, and machinery located partly in each of three counties, the raw and manufactured material and other personal property being first in one and then in another of said counties. Some of the land and the greater part of the water property is located in Oconee county; the main building, some of the operatives' houses, the machinery, and the most valuable part of the plant, are located in Morgan county; the dyehouse, the balance of the operatives' houses, and the offices of the company are located across the line in Walton county, in which the charter locates the principal office of the High Shoals Company. The company made its tax returns for 1903 in Walton county, whereupon the authorities of Morgan county filed a petition under the act approved August 17, 1903 (Acts 1903, p. 16), for direction and judgment as to which county was entitled to the return and taxes, contending that, except as to notes and accounts, the returns should have been made and the tax on the entire plant and tangible personal property should have been paid, in Morgan county, as required by section 8 of the tax act of 1902 (Acts 1902, p. 28), which provides "that, if the real estate or plant of any of said companies or persons is located on or across a county line or county lines, and in two or more counties, said real estate, together with the buildings and machinery thereon, and all personal property made by or used in connection with or for the purpose of operating said manufacturing or other plants, shall be returned to the tax-receiver of the county wherein are located the main buildings containing machinery or most of said main buildings, and the money, notes and accounts and other like property may be so returned, or may be returned to the receiver of the county wherein the principal officer or residence of such companies or persons is located." The county of Walton and the High Shoals Manufacturing Company demurred, and also answered. By the answer, in support of which evidence was offered, Walton county and the manufacturing company contended that by charter the manufacturing company's place of residence was located in Walton county; that the plant was operated as a unit for the manufacture of cotton goods; that the tax returns for 1903 had already been made in the county of Walton before the approval of the act of August 17, 1903, which provided for the filing of the form of petition like that presented by the county of Morgan; that none of its personal property made by or used in connection with or for the purpose of operating the plant was ever, during the year 1903, in the county of Morgan, except temporarily; that all of it became the property of the defendant in Walton county, and whenever any part of it--such as raw material, supplies, or other personalty--may have been placed in Morgan, the same was there temporarily being consumed, or returned to Walton county in the same or another form, and in the case of manufactured goods all sales were made by the company in its own store or office, or through agents in other states; that it was the right of the defendant to return all of its property, real and personal, in Walton county, where its home office was located on a part of the plant itself; that section 8 of the tax act of 1902 is directed to the taxpayer, and does not change the general law giving the company the right to return its plant in the county of its legal residence, or, if it does change the general law, it is contrary to that provision of the Constitution (Civ. Code 1895, § 5732) requiring general laws to have uniform operation, and prohibiting the enactment of a special law in any case for which provision has already been made by a general law; that the act also violates the Constitution (Civ. Code 1895, § 5883) in that it attempts to provide a different mode of making tax returns, and prescribes different counties in which returns shall be made by corporations owning manufacturing plants located on or across a county line, from that provided in the general law for tax returns of all other corporations or persons owning property on a county line, the effect of which would be to impose additional burdens on the former class of taxpayers. The court disallowed an amendment whereby the defendants sought to set out the provisions of Pol. Code 1895, §§ 816-818, 826, in reference to the county in which tax returns should be made, with a view of showing that section 8 of the tax act of 1902 was variant from these general laws. The defendants also excepted to the refusal of the court to allow proof as to the allegation in the answer in reference to the personal property being only temporarily in Morgan county. The county of Morgan introduced the tax returns of the manufacturing company made June 29, 1903, to the tax receiver of Walton county, from which it appeared that on the day fixed for the valuation the company had real estate, $20,000; machinery, $67,000; merchandise, $4,000; raw material, $34,000; manufactured goods, whether at principal office or in the hands of agents, commission merchants, or others, $3,500; money, $1,500; choses in action, $4,000; mules, $800; wagons, $200. The president of the manufacturing company testified that the manufactured goods were partly in the mill, partly en route to Philadelphia, and partly in Philadelphia. The merchandise was in the store in Walton county. The mules and wagon were in Walton county. Part of the cotton was in Athens, Clarke county, and part in the warehouse, which is in Morgan county. The item "raw material" in the tax return embraces the cotton in High Shoals and in Athens. The merchandise, "I should not think, was used in connection with the plant, which can be operated easily without the store." The goods are not sold simply to operatives, but to anybody. It is a general store. About a tenth of the goods in the store are manufactured at the plant. They buy cotton and store it in Athens, but if they secure enough at High Shoals they sell that at Athens. They bought it either to manufacture or sell as they saw fit. They actually used all the cotton embraced in this return in manufacturing. The defendants requested the court to charge that the personal property referred to in the act "is such only as may be in or connected with the buildings containing the machinery, and is not personal property outside, and not connected with, said buildings or machinery in the buildings." The jury found that the main buildings containing the machinery were in Morgan county, and that the amount of personal property made by and used in connection with or for the purpose of operating the plant was $105,000. Thereupon the court entered a decree that under existing laws the manufacturing company shall return and pay taxes upon its real estate, with the buildings and machinery thereon, and all personal property made by or used in connection with or for the purpose of operating the manufacturing plant, in the county of Morgan, but that its choses in action and like property may be returned in Morgan or in Walton, at the option of the company; to which the defendants excepted on...
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