Wheatly v. City of Covington
| Decision Date | 09 March 1874 |
| Parties | Wheatly v. City of Covington. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
APPEAL FROM KENTON CIRCUIT COURT.
CARLISLE & FOOTE, For Appellant.
JOHN P. HARRISON, For Appellee.
JUDGE COFER DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT.
The charter of the city of Covington and the amendments thereto provide that all tax bills remaining in the hands of the city treasurer after the 15th day of June in each year shall, within five days thereafter, be marked "delinquent," and returned to the city clerk, who shall add fifteen per cent thereto and place the same into the hands of the collector for collection.
The collector is required to receipt for the bills so placed in his hands, and proceed forthwith to collect the same, and he is allowed seven per cent commission on all sums collected by him, to be paid by the city.
In this state of the law, the city council, on the 15th day of June, 1868, while the appellant was city collector, passed a resolution remitting the penalty of fifteen per cent as to all delinquents who should pay their taxes before the 1st day of July, and directing the committee on ways and means to make proper arrangements to carry the resolution into effect.
The committee accordingly waited upon the treasurer, who had all the unpaid tax bills in his hands, and instructed him not to return them to the city clerk, but to continue to collect until July 1st, which he did, and before that time arrived collected over $27,000.
The appellant was present when the foregoing directions were given, and then gave notice to the committee and treasurer that he was ready to proceed to collect the unpaid taxes for that year, and protested against the execution of the order of the council.
This action was brought against the city to recover seven per cent commission on the amount of taxes collected by the city treasurer between the 15th day of June and the 1st day of July.
The office of collector is created by the charter, and the incumbent receives no salary or perquisites beyond his commission and fees for collecting taxes; and his counsel now insist that he had, by virtue of his office, an absolute right to collect all taxes not paid by the 15th of June, and that, having been illegally prevented from collecting so much of the taxes as was collected by the treasurer between the 15th of June and the 1st of July, he is entitled to the compensation which he would have been entitled to if he had collected that sum himself.
All the legislative authority of the city government is vested by the charter in the city council. The power to levy and cause taxes to be collected is legislative, and all power of the city government over the subject is therefore in the council, and it either possessed the power to postpone the time when unpaid tax bills should be placed in the collector's hands, or no such power existed any where in the city government, and a tax once levied would be beyond the control of any authority except the legislature of the state. We do not suppose...
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