Winton Lumber Co. v. Shoshone County

• Decision Date: 11 December 1930
• Docket Number: 5674
• Parties: WINTON LUMBER COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant, v. SHOSHONE COUNTY, a Municipal Corporation, W. H. HERRICK, Assessor, and WALTER HENDRICKSON, Sheriff, Respondents
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

294 P. 529

50 Idaho 130

WINTON LUMBER COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant, v. SHOSHONE COUNTY, a Municipal Corporation, W. H. HERRICK, Assessor, and WALTER HENDRICKSON, Sheriff, Respondents

No. 5674

Supreme Court of Idaho

December 11, 1930

TAXATION-TIME OF ASSESSMENT-CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-OWNERSHIP-GROWING TIMBER-LOGS.

1. Status and value of property on second Monday of January controls assessment for taxation (C. S., sec. 3097, as amended by Laws 1927, chap. 263, sec. 1).

2. It is common knowledge that timberlands are chiefly valuable for timber growing upon them.

3. Neither land nor crop of timber may be assessed more than once during tax year (Const., art. 7, sec. 5; C. S., sec 3101, as amended by Laws 1925, chap. 74).

4. Under dealings between lumber company and government, lumber company had no title to standing timber on government land on second Monday in January, 1929, for purposes of taxation under contract dated February 18, 1929.

5. Title to timber bought by lumber company being in government on second Monday in January, property was exempt from taxation, and exemption continued throughout fiscal tax year (C. S., sec. 3099, subd. 1).

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING.

6. Logs which company contemplated cutting in 1930, under 1929 contract providing title should remain in government until paid for, scaled and measured, held not subject to tax in 1930 (C. S., sec. 3099, subd. 1).

APPEAL from the District Court of the First Judicial District, for Shoshone County. Hon. Albert H. Featherstone, Judge.

Application for reduction of assessment and for cancelation of assessment on certain logs. Judgment for defendants. Reversed.

Judgments reversed, with directions, with costs to appellant.

Robert H. Elder and E. R. Whitla, for Appellant.

C. S sec. 3266, as amended by 1929 Sess. Laws, chap. 263, sec. 3 p. 587, requires the assessor to enter all personal property upon the rolls unless such property was exempt from taxation on the second Monday of January of the year in which such property came into any such county.

Personal property in this state is assessed as of its status and value on the second Monday of January and if it is exempt at that time it cannot be assessed for that year by a change of the status after that date. (Dodge v. Nevada Nat. Bank, 109 F. 726; Sisters of Poor of St. Francis v. New York, 51 Hun, 355, 3 N.Y.S. 433; People v. Purdy, 72 Misc. 122, 130 N.Y.S. 1077.)

In the case of Clearwater Timber Co. v. Nez Perce County, 155 F. 633, a case arising under the Idaho statute, after quoting the Idaho statute, Judge Dietrich says:

"It is very clear from this language that the status of property within the State of Idaho, at 12 o'clock noon, on the second Monday in January, must be taken as the basis for the assessment of such property for that year. But if the property is brought into the state subsequent to that date and during the fiscal year, its status upon the day of its actual assessment may be taken as the basis of the assessment.

"The lands in question were as much in the State of Idaho on the second Monday of January, 1905, as were any other lands, by whomsoever they may have been owned. The residence or nonresidence of the holder of the title to lands is wholly immaterial in considering their location for the purpose of assessment, and it is likewise immaterial, in considering the locus of the property that upon the second Monday of January the title to the lands in question was vested in the United States. Nor is it of any more importance that the title passed from the United States to a private person during the fiscal year, than it would be if the title passed from one private person to another. If this property was exempt from taxation upon the second Monday of January, 1905, it was exempt from taxation for the year 1905, and its subsequent transfer could not deprive it of this exemption."

Charles E. Horning and James A. Wayne, for Respondents.

The Winton Lumber Company has such an interest in the standing timber against which the assessment of taxes here involved was made, to render such interest subject to taxation, even though the legal title to the land was still in the United States. (1925 Sess. Laws, chap. 74, amending C. S., sec. 3101; Cheney v. Minidoka County, 26 Idaho 471, 144 P. 343; Baltimore Shipbuilding & D. Co. v. Baltimore, 195 U.S. 375, 25 S.Ct. 50, 49 L.Ed. 242; Bothwell v. Bingham County, 24 Idaho 125, 132 P. 972.)

MCNAUGHTON, J. Givens, C. J., and Budge, Lee and Varian, JJ., concur.

OPINION

MCNAUGHTON, J.

On the second Monday of January, 1929, the Winton Lumber Company had no logs in Shoshone County. On the second Monday of January, 1930, it had in the county approximately 4,000,000 feet of its 1929 cut from government timber. The lumber company admits the right of Shoshone County to collect taxes on these logs, and it was testified that they had been or would be turned in to the assessor, The consolidated actions here on appeal involve an assessment on logs of the 1929 cut for the year 1929, and on the 1930 cut for the year 1930.

The case here is an appeal from a judgment upon an application for the cancelation of $ 96,500.00 of an assessment made against lands of the Winton Lumber Company for personal property tax on logs from government timber, cut during the spring and summer of the year 1929; and an appeal from a judgment in an action to enjoin the assessment of similar taxes levied for the year 1930. The cases were consolidated for trial and will be so treated on the appeal.

There is no dispute in the testimony. The first and main case is as follows: In the early fall of 1928, the Winton Lumber Company consulted the government Forestry Service at Coeur d'Alene, making application to the Forestry Department to put a parcel of standing timber on the market. Pursuant thereto the government opened a sale area of about 1131 acres on what is known as the Haystack Creek watershed. This timber was advertised for sale but no bids were received and it was then decided to offer the timber at private sale. Pursuant to negotiations with the Winton Lumber Company in this behalf, a timber sales agreement, which is in evidence as Plaintiff's Exhibit "A," was drafted at the Coeur d'Alene office of the Forestry Service, and forwarded to the Missoula office as a "sample" for approval. It was approved as a sample agreement by the Missoula office and returned to Coeur d'Alene. Thereupon a request was made of the lumber company for an advancement of $ 8,000 on the proposed sale in the letter of transmittal inclosing to the company the form of agreement. The form of agreement was held by the lumber company, but its check for $ 8,000 was sent on September 20, 1928, to the Forestry Service. This check was held, but not accepted or deposited, pending the negotiations. On the 18th of February, 1929, the timber sale agreement was executed by the lumber company and forwarded to the Forestry Department. It was testified that on February 21, 1929, there was received by the fiscal agent $ 8,000, which was the first payment. On May 10, 1929, the agreement was approved by the Forestry Department.

After receipt of the sample agreement in the fall of 1928, the lumber company spent considerable money upon the sale area in anticipation of this sale, preparatory for logging, but cut no merchantable timber. In March, 1929, after executing the agreement and the acceptance of the advance payment, and the giving and acceptance of a bond, the lumber company began cutting logs from the "sale area," from trees which had been marked for cutting by the Forestry Service the fall before. The company was called upon and under the contract for a further advance payment of $ 15,000 shortly after it started logging operations, and was called upon for like advance payments as the logging progressed, so that up to about May 1, 1929, some $ 38,000 had been advanced by the lumber company.

Regarding the logs cut in 1930, the situation is pretty much the same except the advancements and bond, pursuant to which the cut was made, were much smaller, and the agreement is the same except as to timber and amounts, and was executed on March 4, 1930.

In the first case the assessor of Shoshone County entered an assessment for taxes against lands in the county owned by the Winton Lumber Company of $ 96,500, on account of taxes on 15,500,000 feet, b. m., of sawlogs. The company petitioned the county commissioners of Shoshone County, sitting as a board of equalization, for an order reducing the assessment against it in the total amount claimed for said logs, as illegal. The commissioners denied the petition, and plaintiff appealed to the district court. In the second case, action was brought by plaintiff in the district court, asking that the assessor be enjoined from assessing the 1930 cut for the year 1930. The injunction action was consolidated for trial with the appeal from the order of the commissioners.

Upon trial in the district court, the court found the Winton Lumber Company was the owner (equitable owner) on the second Monday of January, 1929, of the standing timber from which the logs were cut, which timber had been marked for sale in the fall of the preceding year, and which was covered by the agreement in evidence, dated February 18, 1929, and was on the second Monday in January, 1930, likewise the owner of the other standing timber covered by the agreement dated March 4, 1930.

In appellant's assignments of error these findings and the affirmance of the assessments are challenged on several grounds. We shall not discuss the discrepancies pointed out by appellant between the assessment on logs as personal property, made by the assessor, and its justification by the court as real property in...