Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Co. v. Thomas
Decision Date | 12 November 1888 |
Citation | 65 Miss. 553,5 So. 108 |
Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Parties | YAZOO AND MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. S. B. THOMAS ET AL., Tax Collectors |
APPEAL from the Chancery Court of Hinds County, HON. WARREN COWAN Chancellor.
Under an act of the legislature, approved April 3d, 1888, entitled "An Act to provide for the assessment and collection of past due and unpaid taxes on railroads which have escaped the payment of taxes," an ad valorum tax, for the years 1885, 1886 and 1887, had been assessed against the property of every description belonging to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, and the tax collectors, severally of the counties of Hinds, Madison, Yazoo, Holmes, Leflore and Grenada were about to proceed with the collection of the same when, on July 17th, 1888, the railroad company filed the bill in this case against such tax collectors, for an injunction prohibiting the collection of the tax.
The bill states as follows:
"PREAMBLE.--Whereas the construction of railroads to, in, through and along the Mississippi River basin, and the Yazoo and Sunflower basins penetrating these and other alluvial lands in this State west of the Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad, and connecting them by railroad and branches with other railroads, west, east, north and south, is deemed, and hereby declared to be a work of great public importance, and, in strict accordance with the policy and the interests of this State, should be encouraged by legislation and liberality; and whereas, the physical difficulties of constructing and maintaining railroads to, across, along or within, either the Mississippi, Sunflower, Deer Creek or Yazoo bottoms or basins, or the other alluvial lands herein referred to, are such that no private company has, so far, been able to establish a railroad and branches developing said basins and alluvial lands, and connecting them with the railroad system of the country; now, therefore, in order to induce the investment of capital in the construction and operation of such a railroad and branches, and thus develop the resources of the State," etc.
The bill further charges that its property is not subject, according to its charter, to the taxes the collection of which is sought to be enjoined, and that the proceedings for the collection of the same are without legal authority; that to apply the act of 1888, in relation to railroads which have escaped taxation, to complainant's road, "will be to violate the charter contract which exempts orator's road from taxation; that such application of said act is the same as a repeal or revocation of the grant of exemption, and therefore in violation of the Constitution of the United States forbidding such violation; and that to impute a legislative intent to compel orator to pay taxes, is to render said act of 1888 an act impairing the obligations of a contract and void, because in violation of the Constitution of the United States, as well as the constitution of this state."
The prayer of the bill is that, on final...
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