16 P. 269 | Ariz. | 1888
This is a suit in equity to enjoin defendant, the tax collector of Yavapai county, from collecting a tax assessed against plaintiffs. They allege that, within the time prescribed by law, the assessor of said county called upon plaintiffs for a sworn list of their property subject toJ taxation, as required by law; that plaintiffs, in compliance with the assessor’s demand, furnished him with a list of their property, containing a full and complete statement of all the prop
To plaintiffs’ complaint the defendant filed a general demurrer, which demurrer the court sustained. The plaintiffs
The question which meets us at the threshold in considering this case, is this: Does the complaint show any ground for equitable relief? If it appear that a party has an adequate remedy at law, he must go there, and the jurisdiction of a court of equity fails. By section 2021, Comp. Laws, it is provided that the supervisors of the county shall sit, in July of each year,'as a board of equalization of taxes, and provides that they shall have power to hear all complaints, etc., may change and correct any valuation, either by adding thereto or deducting therefrom, etc. This section gives ample remedy to any aggrieved tax-payer. To that tribunal they should resort rather than to invoke the extraordinary remedy of injunction. No good reason is alleged for seeking this remedy. It is alleged that the assessor received the sworn list of plaintiffs, and made no objection thereto, and afterwards assessed them at a higher rate, and added additional property, without notifying them thereof, and they say they had no knowledge of it until the board was about to adjourn. It was then ample time to have made their complaint. They are, however, charged with a knowledge of the assessment roll required by law to be completed by the third Monday in June in each year, (Comp. Laws, § 2020,) and then they would have ascertained the fact, and they could then have sought to have had the assessment righted by the tribunal constituted by the law for that purpose. By their own laches they cannot be heard to lay the foundation for the jurisdiction of a court of equity.
For these reasons, the judgment of the court sustaining the demurrer is affirmed. It is not necessary to consider other questions raised as this disposes of the case.
Wright, C. J., and Porter J., concur.