42 Mo. App. 18 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1890
This case was submitted, to the cir-
cuit court of Clinton county upon the following agreed statement of facts:
First. That, at the dates hereinafter mentioned, plaintiff was, and now is, a city of the fourth class. Second. That, on the fourteenth day of March, 1887, the board of aldermen of said city passed an ordinance, which was on the same day approved by the mayor, which said ordinance was entitled: “An ordinance to extend the city limits.” That it was provided in said ordinance that at the regular city election, to be held on the first Tuesday in April of said year, 1887, there should be submitted to the qualified voters of said city a proposition to extend the corporate limits of the city, so as to include the territory in said ordinance described. Said ordinance further provided that notice
I. The leading question submitted for our determination is whether the reasonableness of the ordinance in question, which was passed under the authority conferred by section 4932, Revised. Statutes, is the subject of judicial inquiry. In Giboney v. Cape Girardeau, 58 Mo. 141, the question was similar to the one now before us, where Judge Napton, who delivered the opinion of the court, remarked that “this subject was freely dis-, cussed in St. Louis v. Allen, 13 Mo. 400, and decided according to the previous case of Russell v. St. Louis, 9 Mo. 11, and the opinion subsequently adhered to, and the result of these decisions, was that the power of extending the limits of municipalities, or diminishing them, was a legislative power, and the power of taxation, if granted in the charter, was also intrusted to the municipal legislature, and the judiciary had no right to interfere, unless the taxation was of a character prohibited by the constitution.” It is not claimed the taxation, conceding the right to tax, was in -conflict with any constitutional provision, but simply that no right of taxation at all existed, on the ground that Giboney was not within the'actual town or city, though confessedly within the limits fixed by charter. And this merely comes back to the power of extension, which is, as we have stated, settled .in this state.” And, in another connection in the same opinion, it is stated that, “In our opinion, it is not a judicial question.” v
II. Assuming, therefore, as we must, that the question of the reasonableness of the said ordinance is
Applying these rules to the agreed facts, is there anything stated that would warrant this court in saying the city of Plattsburg had abused or unreasonably exercised the power to extend its limits? We think not. It seems that the defendant’s farm on which he resided is included in the new city limits, and that the city has levied an assessment for municipal purposes against his personal property, and this he declines to pay upon the ground that the extension of the city limits is an unreasonable exercise of its statutory power of extension. The statute being confessedly constitutional, the power to pass the ordinance is not open to question. The statute expressly exempts the defendant’s lands from the burdens of municipal taxation, while unplatted and devoted to agricultural purposes, but the exemption does not extend to his personal property. On the contrary, under the maxim, “expressiounius est exclusio alterius,” it must be considered included within the taxing jurisdiction of the city as is other personal property therein. The mere fact that the defendant’s personal property is subjected to taxation unless connected with other circumstances of oppressiveness, inequality or injustice, which do not