38 Iowa 633 | Iowa | 1874
Lead Opinion
— This case is one of paramount importance, both in the amount of money involved and the gravity of the legal questions presented. It has been argued by learned counsel, with great and unusual ability, and we have endeavored to give the case that careful and deliberate consideration which its magnitude demands.
• II. Did the court err in sustaining the demurrer to the first division of the answer?
In Dunleith & Dubuque Bridge v. The City of Dubuque, 32 Iowa, 427, this court held (Cole, J., dissenting) that payment by a railroad company, of a tax of one per centum, on the gross éarnings of the road,'under chapter 169 of the Acts of the Twelfth General Assembly, did not relieve the railroad company from the payment of city taxes, levied upon its property within the limits of the city. The act was held to be confined in its operation to State and county taxes. Under the doctrine of that case, the first count of the answer presented no defense and the demurrer therefore was properly sustained.
In support of these views, see the following cases: Arnold v. Arnold, 17 Pick., 4; Ferrer's Case 6, Coke, 7; Cleaton v. Chambliss, 6 Rand (Va.), 86; Clark v. Young, 1 Cranch, 181; Beere v. Fleming, 13 Irish, C. L., 506; Norton v. Huxley, 13 Gray, 285; Ricker v. Hooper, 35 Vert., 457; Harding v. Hale, 2 Gray, 399; Marsh v. Pier, 4 Rawle, 273; Packet Co. v. Sickels, 5 Wall., and cases cited; Meyers v. Johnson County, 14 Iowa, 47; Simmons v. Van Pelt, 12 Id., 368, and cases cited.
Again, this case does not fall within the principle involved where a particular issue of fact is tried and determined, and judgment rendered upon such determination, which judgment estops both parties from afterwards denying the fact thus found and determined. See Bigelow on Estoppel, page 22.
, Mr. Justice Cold does not concur in the holding on this point, but holds that since the prior adjudication was based upon, and rendered under the statute as it then stood, and held that the city had no power to levy any tax upon the property; this want of power was therefore adjudicated and as effectually disposed of as it could be by litigating the taxes of each subsequent year. The tax for 1867, was levied under the same law as those embraced in the prior adjudication; other taxes for 1868 and 1869, under laws identical in these respects with it, and as to all these he holds the adjudication conclusive.
V. In the fourth count of the answer, the defendant claims to have been released from the payment of the taxes sued for under and by virtue of chapter 26, of the Laws of the "Fourteenth General Assembly, approved April 6th, 1872.
The act embracing the above provision was passed after the taxes sued for in this action were levied, and after this action .had been commenced.
It is insisted fry plaintiff’s counsel that this section of the act is unconstitutional, and therefore invalid.
The second section of Article 8, of the State Constitution, is in these words: “ The property of all corporations for pecuniary profit shall be subject to taxation, the same as that of individuals.”
The power of taxation reaches all classes of property alike, independently of this provision of the Constitution. We, therefore, conclude that since it must have been intended to give some force and effect to this section as a part of the fundamental law, it must be understood as a command to, and as enjoining it as a duty upon, the General Assembly, to provide
In the next place, what are we to understand to be intended by the language “the same as that of individuals”? We need not determine whether this language requires that corporate property shall be taxed in the same manner as that of natural persons. It seems, however, quite clear that it was intended by this language to require the legislature to impose the burdens of taxation upon the property of corporations for pecuniary profit the same as, or equally with, that of individuals; that the property of this class of corporations shall bear the same burdens of taxation as are placed upon that of individuals; that each shall be taxed for the same objects, and in the same degree, so that individuals shall not be required to pay any taxes on their property which are not also assessed and laid upon the property of corporations of the class named, nor in any greater proportion. When the legislature provides for taxing the property of individuals, this clause of the Constitution requires it to tax the property of corporations for pecuniary profit, to the same extent and for the same purposes. If the property of individuals be taxed for State, county,. school and municipal purposes, the property of this class of corporations must be subjected to the- same taxes and at the same rates. The one cannot be exempt and the other liable.
This state of things existed under the law at the time of the passage of the act of the General Assembly under consideration. The property of railroad corporations, (which are conceded to be corporations for pecuniary profit), was, like that of individuals, subject to taxation for city purposes. See Dunleith & Dubuque Bridge Co. v. City of Dubuque, 82 Iowa, 427. The laws then in force subjected the property of railroad corporations to taxation for municipal purposes the same as that of individuals. The act of the General Assembly under consideration interposes and declares that those railroad companies which shall have paid all taxes assessed against
It is insisted by counsel for defendant that the act operates as a release of taxes on railroad property, and not on railroad corporations, and that it makes no distinction in respect to such property, between corporations and individuals. In this we cannot concur with the learned counsel. The act under consideration deals in terms with railroad corporations only. The language is, “ Every railroad eo'/npany which shall have paid all taxes on gross earnings, etc,, shall be released from the payment of all other taxes which may have been levied on the road, bed, right of way, rolling stock, and necessary buildings for operating their road, and no taxes for prior years, for State, county, municipal, or any other purpose for which any tax can be levied under the laws of the State, etc., shall be collected from any such railroad company, on such property.”
The act releases the railroad companies who have paid, etc., from all taxes levied for any purpose on the property named. It is not an exemption or release from taxation, of a class of property, irrespective of the ownership, but a release of these corporations from .taxes which had been levied alike on their property and that of individuals. The act attempts to remove the burden from the corporations and leave it remaining upon individuals having property within the incorporated cities and towns of the State. The terms “ railroad companies ” are used
But if the kind of property mentioned in the act under examination, viz: railroad property, be of a character that it may be owned and controlled by a natural person, still it would, under the laws of the State, be subject to be taxed for municipal purposes when situated within the limits of an incorporated city or town, for the act purporting to release raiVroad companies from the payment of sftch taxes, cannot be construed to release a private individual from the payment of -such taxes on the same kind of property when owned by him. This results in discriminating in favor of corpiox’ations and against individuals, and is plainly violative of the constitution. -Again, if railroad property be of such a nature as that it may not be owned or held by an individual, but can only be owned and held by railroad corporations, the act is equally vulnerable to the constitutional objection, for it affects the property only when held by corporations. It exempts the property of railroad corporations from taxation, while that of individuals remains, under the laws of the State, subject thereto. To prevent this state of things was- the purpose of the constitutional provision herein set out.
Mr. Justice Cole dissents from the holding in the foregoing division of this opinion, on the grounds and for the reasons stated by him in his dissenting opinion in the case of The City of Dubuque v. The Illinois Central Railroad Company, present term.
VI. In the view we have taken of this constitutional question, it becomes unnecessary for us to examine and determine the question, (very ably argued,) whether the plaintiff, a municipal corporation, had such á vested right in the taxes due, and delinquent upon the property of the defendant situated within the city limits, at the time of the passage of the act releasing the-same,.as that the legislature could not constitutionally interpose and release them.
Reversed.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
I concur in the conclusion reached in the foregoing opinion, affirming the judgment of the District Court. My views and the arguments upon which they are based, differ in many respects from those expressed by the Chief Justice. They are fully presented in my opinion in The City of Dubuque v. The Ill. Cen. R. R. Co. To that I refer for a full discussion of the doctrines which, I conceive, control this cause.