257 Mass. 43 | Mass. | 1926
This is a petition for mandamus to compel the respondent to submit to the Attorney General for approval a certificate of abatement of a tax under G. L. c. 58, § 27, as amended by St. 1922, c. 382. The case was heard by a single justice upon the petition, answer, and the report of an auditor appointed to find the facts and report the same to the court. This case and twenty-two others were consolidated, by order of the court, and tried together. The single justice found the facts as reported by the auditor, and disposed of the case as follows: "If the decision upon this petition rested in my discretion, I should allow the writ to issue, since money obtained by an illegal tax is being withheld by the Commonwealth. As it does not, I must order that the writ be denied.” We construe this statement as a ruling of law that the tax assessed and paid was in part at least illegal, but that the court had no power to order the issuance of the writ.
We consider first whether the tax assessed was excessive and unlawful. The petitioner contends that it was unlawful upon two grounds. Each of the petitioners is a trust com-
The second ground upon which it is contended that the tax was illegally assessed is that the commissioner erred in failing to deduct the average amount of the deposits in excess of $2,000 in the petitioner’s savings departments invested in loans secured by mortgages on real estate taxable in this Commonwealth under the provisions of G. L. c. 63, § 11. This question has never been‘decided by the court. The petitioner contends that the average amount of deposits in excess of $2,000 so invested should have been deducted under § 55.
G. L. c. 63, § 14, provides that “No investment of deposits in the savings department of any trust company exempt in any year from the tax imposed by section eleven shall be in the same year a basis for any deduction allowed in computing any other tax which trust companies are required by law to pay.” The respondent contends that by the enactment of this statute the Legislature intended that investment of deposits in the savings department which belonged to the class exempted by § 12 should not be deductible under § 55. The tax authorized by § 11 was a tax on the deposits “as do not exceed in amount the limits imposed upon deposits in savings banks by section thirty-one of chapter one hundred and sixty-eight”; namely, deposits each of which did not exceed in amount the sum of $2,000.
The questions, whether under the statute the petitioners severally made application for the correction and abatement of the tax assessed and whether it was the duty of the respondent to consider such applications, remain to be considered. The auditor found that the applications were made more than six months after the payment of the tax but before the expiration of two years from the date of the tax bills rendered; also, that “the respondent, in accordance with his general practice, denied the petitioners’ applications for abatement and ... his failure to grant relief was due solely to the fact that the applications were not filed within six months after the date of payment of the tax bills rendered, and that in refusing to grant relief he followed his usual custom in cases where petitioners have lost their legal rights by failure to bring suit within the statutory limit of time, in the exercise of the discretion, as he claims, granted to him” by G. L. c. 58, § 27, as amended by St. 1922, c. 382. We construe this finding to mean that the commissioner believed the taxes assessed were in part at least illegal, and that his sole ground for denying the applications for abatement was that they were not filed within six months after the date of payment of the tax bills rendered as provided by G. L. c. 63, §77.
The statute under which the applications were made and under which he was empowered to act, (G. L. c. 58, § 27, as amended by St. 1922, c. 382,) provides that “No certificate for the abatement of any tax or excise shall be issued under
The statute provides in substance that, if the tax was in whole or in part illegally assessed or levied, or was excessive or unwarranted, “the commissioner may, with the approval of the Attorney General, issue a certificate that the party ' aggrieved by such tax or excise is entitled to an abatement, stating the amount thereof.” The respondent contends, and the single justice ruled that the authority so vested in the commissioner is discretionary not only as to the determination of amount to be abated, but upon the question whether, even if it should appear that the tax sought to be abated was in whole or in part illegally assessed or levied or was excessive or unwarranted, an abatement should be granted. The word “may” ordinarily construed is permissive and not mandatory. In the construction of statutes when applied to a public officer in connection with a duty to be performed it is construed as “must” or “shall,” if such appears to have been the intention of the Legislature. County of Worcester v. Schlesinger, 16 Gray, 166, 168. Bay State Street Railway v. Woburn, 232 Mass. 201, 203. It was said in Commonwealth v. Mekelburg, 235 Mass. 383, at page 384, “In the construction of statutes the rule seems to be that the word 'may’ means 'must’ or 'shall’ only in cases where the public
By the enactment of G. L. c. 58, § 27, as amended by St. 1922, c. 382, the obvious purpose of the Legislature was to relieve from the consequences of taxes or excises in whole or in part illegally assessed or paid. When it appears to the commissioner that an income tax, a legacy and succession tax, or a tax or excise upon a corporation, foreign or domestic, was in whole or in part illegally assessed or levied, or was excessive dr unwarranted, the statute requires him with the approval of the Attorney General to issue a certificate that the party aggrieved by such tax or excise is entitled to an abatement, stating the amount thereof, which amount shall not exceed the sum “which in equity and good conscience ought to be abated under all the circumstances of the case.” The statute also expressly provides that the remedy therein given “shall be in addition to and not in modification of any other remedies.” If, through ignorance or mistake of an individual or of the officers of a corporation in the tax return or through an error of the department of corporations and taxation in computing the amount of an income, legacy or succession tax or a tax or excise upon a corporation, an excessive or illegal tax is levied and assessed, the Legislature by the enactment of this statute intended that it should be corrected by the commissioner with the approval of the
When the time for mating applications under the statute was definitely fixed at two years from the date of the tax bill, it was intended that the time should be extended for mating the application for an abatement which before the adoption of the amendment was limited to six months after the payment of the tax. G. L. c. 63, § 77.
The failure of the commissioner to grant relief in these cases solely on the ground that the applications were not filed within six months after the date of payment of the tax bills rendered, and his refusal to grant relief following his usual custom in cases where petitioners have lost their legal rights by failure to bring suit within the statutory limit of time as provided in G. L. c. 63, § 77, were erroneous. It is well settled in this Commonwealth and elsewhere, “that the Legislature cannot delegate the general power to make laws, conferred upon it by a constitution like that of Massachusetts.” Brodbine v. Revere, 182 Mass. 598, 600. The statute in question did not authorize the commissioner to change a general law enacted for the benefit of all the people and of corporations subject to taxation in this Commonwealth. We are constrained to hold that the refusal of the respondent to act upon the applications of the petitioners solely for the reason given was unwarranted and illegal; that mandamus will lie is well settled in principle by the cases already cited. French v. Jones, 191 Mass. 522. Keough v. Aldermen of Holyoke, 156 Mass. 403. McLean v. Mayor of Holyoke, 216 Mass. 62. Burke v. Holyoke Board of Health, 219 Mass. 219. Wyeth v. Cambridge Board of Health, 200 Mass. 474. See also Welch v. Swasey, 193 Mass. 364, 377; Garfield v. Goldsby, 211 U. S. 249, 262; Work v. Rives, 267 U. S. 175. It was said by Chief Justice Knowlton in Wyeth v. Cambridge Board of Health, supra, at pages 481, 482, that “The report is equivalent to a finding upon the answer and the facts
The provision of the statute (St. 1922, c. 382,) that “the decision of the commissioner and Attorney General shall be final,” does not make the commissioner’s decision final where as in the present case questions of law apparent on the record are involved. Swan. v. Justices of the Superior Court, 222 Mass. 542. Bogigian v. Commissioner of Corporations & Taxation, 248 Mass. 545, 548. Nor does it permit the commissioner in his discretion to refuse to consider an application for the abatement in whole or in part of a tax illegally assessed, on the sole ground that the application was not filed within six months from the date of the payment of the tax. To hold otherwise would defeat the result sought to be accomplished by the statute. The single justice in his “finding and order” states in substance that if he had discretion to do so he would allow the writ to issue “since money obtained by an illegal tax is being withheld by the Commonwealth,” but that whether the commissioner should consider the applications rested in his own discretion, and for that reason the writ should be denied. This was a ruling of law, and as it was erroneous the exceptions must be sustained. It was the duty of the respondent to consider the applications for abatement and, if it should appear that the tax or excise assessed or levied against the petitioners or either of them was in whole or in part illegally assessed or levied, or was excessive or unwarranted, to submit a certificate setting out the grounds on which it is based for the approval of the Attorney General, stating the amount for which the petitioners in equity and good conscience are entitled to an abatement.
Exceptions sustained.
The limit so stood at the time, 1922, to which this petition relates. By St. 1924, c. 67, § 1, it was changed to $3,000.
