36 Fla. 519 | Fla. | 1895
The appellee, who was complainant in the court below, brought its bill of complaint to enjoin the appellant (defendant below) from selling a certain line of street railroad for the payment of certain State and county taxes. The property in question is an electric street railroad located upon certain streets of the city of Tampa, and wholly situated within the county of Hillsborough. The taxes sought to be collected are for the year 1893, and have not been paid. The property was levied upon and a sale thereof advertised. A demurrer to the bill of complaint, for general want of equity, and upon other grounds, was overruled, and a temporary injunction granted, restraining the sale of the property. The appeal is taken from these orders.
Without attempting to give, even in a digested form, the allegations of the bill of complaint, it is sufficient to say that two principal grounds are set forth why the proceedings to sell the property should be enjoined. Inverting the order in which they are stated in the bill of complaint, these reasons, briefly stated, are as follows: 1. That the assessment of the property by the Comptroller, under the statute regulating the assessment of railroads, was null and void, and that the same should have been assessed by the county tax assessor under the general statutes for the assessment of real and personal property. 2. That the property, after assessment, passed out of the hands of the parties owning it at the time of such assessment, and was
Under the first objection, that the assessment of the property by the Comptroller, under the statute regulating the assessment of railroads was illegal and void, it is urged that a street railway extending over the streets of a single city, and wholly located within the limits of a single county, is not a railroad within the meaning of the word as used in the statute. If a street railroad is not a railroad in contemplation of the statute, the assessment is illegal, but if it is such a railroad, the assessment is legal and proper. The question presented requires an examination of the
Besides the judicial construction of statutes, there is known to the law another kind of construction. This kind of construction has especial application to statutes made for the regulation of the different departments of the government, and is the interpretation put upon them by the actual administration of them by such departments. As distinguished from judicial construction, it is called the practical construction of statures. While not of such high authority as a judicial interpretation of the act, such practical construction of the class of statutes referred to, when not in conflict with the Constitution or the plain intent of the act, is of great persuasive force and efficacy. The system of taxation of railroads by the State Comptroller, in the manner prescribed by the sections of the act hereinbefore referred to, has existed in this State •ever since the enactment of Chapter 1713, laws of Florida, acts of 1869. Slight modifications have at various times been made by different Legislatures, but the general system has remained unchanged. It is
The question involved is the method of taxation of the property in dispute. No question is raised of the liability of the property to taxation. No showing is made of any double assessment, or unequal, unjust or oppressive taxation. The taxes on the property for the year for which the assessment was made have not been paid. The property has not discharged the burden of taxation which rests upon it as upon all other property in the State not specially exempted by law. In such a case we think the greatest deference and respect should be paid by this court to the long prevailing construction of the statute made by the executive department of the State government, and we will not interfere with the same. We do not rest our conclusion upon the case of Westbrook vs. Miller, supra, but have examined many other authorities upon the subject which practically unanimously agree with that case. Among other cases of similar import are Johnson vs. Ballou, 28 Mich. 379; Malonny vs. Mahar, 1
This brings us to the consideration of the second ground upon which it was claimed that the injunction should issue. The allegations of the bill of complaint as to the manner of complainant’s acquiring a title to the property is very vague and indefinite, there being no direct statement whatever that it acquired title through the judicial sale mentioned. We will consider the case, however, as if the bill contained such an averment. The property had been assessed for its taxes, and a lien for the same thereby acquired by the State before the judicial sale. The contention, however, is that although the State was not a party to the proceedings in which the sale was made, yet by virtue of the direction of the court that the property be sold free from any mortgages, judgments, mechanics’, laborers’ , material men, or other liens and incumbrances
The State’s lien for taxes having attached by the assessment of the property, could not be divested by a subsequent judicial sale, even though the degree under which the sale was made should have directed that the property should be sold free from all incumbrances. The case of Mesker vs. Koch, 76 Ind. 68, is very much like the present one. The complainants, in the case-cited, alleged that they had purchased the property at a judicial sale. The firm against whom the property
In reference to the contention that the State ought to intervene by petition in the suit pending in the court below, and collect its taxes from the money the proceeds of the property in the registry of the court, .the undoubted weight of authority is, that while the State might so intervene if it chose, it can not be compelled to do so. Private parties have no right, in proceedings in which the State is not a party by consent, to have a decree entered which will divest it of its statutory tax lien upon the property involved in the suit and force it to collect its taxes in some other man
The counsel for appellee relies with much confidence upon the case of In re Tyler, 149 U. S. 164, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 785, and upon cases cited by the court in said opinion. What we have said disposes of the case before us, but in view of the earnestness with which the cases mentioned have been pressed upon our attention, we deem it not inappropriate to refer briefly to them. We qan not enter into any critical analysis of each case because such a course would extend this opinion to undue length. The case of In re Tyler was a habeas corpus proceeding to relieve from punishment for contempt a South Carolina sheriff who had levied a tax execution or warrant upon property in the hands of a receiver appointed by a United States Court. An injunction had been previously'issued against the levy, and the taxes sought to be enforced had been held illegal by the court. The Supreme Court denied the writ of habeas corpus upon the ground that the prop
In the case of Central Trust Company vs. New York City & Northern R. R. Co., 110 N. Y. 250, 18 N. E. Rep. 92, the converse of the proposition contended for by appellee was asserted. There the State intervened and sought to enforce the payment of taxes of a railroad that had gone into the hands of a receiver from funds in his hands arising from the operation of the-road. The statute pointed out a different remedy, and it was claimed that the statutory remedy should have-been pursued. The court held that the State was not confined to the statutory remedy, but that the court might order the taxes paid upon the petition of intervention.
Several other cases cited by appellee show that where-the proceeds of property subject to payment of taxes has come into the custody of a court, such court might upon the intervention of the State direct the taxes-paid by the receiver or officer holding such funds. But none of them hold that the State in a case where the
The decrees appealed from are reversed, with directions to the court below to enter an order dissolving the temporary injunction granted in the cause, sus