39 Mo. 476 | Mo. | 1867
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was a proceeding on the part of the collector of the City of St. Joseph before the city recorder, under the charter and ordinances, to obtain judgment against certain real estate of the defendant, situate within the corporate limits of the city, for the amount of taxes thereon levied for municipal purposes which -were unpaid. The plaintiff had judgment, and the case was appealed to the Circuit Court of Buchanan county, where it was affirmed, and now comes up by appeal to this court.
The charter of the defendant provided that the stock of the company should be exempt from all State and county taxes. The third section of the act of the General Assembly of September 20, 1852 (R.R. Laws, 115), required the company to pay into the State treasury “ a sum of money equal to the amount of the State- tax on other real and personal property of like value, for that year, upon the actual value of the road-bed, buildings, machinery, engines, cars, and other property of said company,” in consideration of the grant of land therein made by the State to said corporation ; and it was decided in the case of the Hann. & St. Jo. R.R. Co. v. Shacklett, 30 Mo. 560, that the property of the company, “consisting of the road-bed, depots, cars, locomotives, and all the real and personal property necessary to the operation of the road,” was not subject to taxation for State and county purposes, in any county, under the general revenue law, which enumerated as objects of taxation “ all shares of stock in banks and other incorporated companies,” and “ all property owned by incorporated companies over and above their capital stock,” for the reason that the stock of the company was exempt by its charter from all State and •county taxes, and that the property aforesaid was repre
Now there is nothing in these decisions which denies to the Legislature the power to repeal those exemptions, or to subject this corporation, or its property, to further taxation in addition to that which was imposed as a consideration for the grant of lands, in case they should see fit to do so by clear intent and express enactment. The charter acts incorporating the City of St. Joseph give an unequivocal authority to the city to tax the real estate of the defendant lying within the corporate limits for municipal purposes. There can be no doubt of the power of the Legislature to repeal a temporary rate of taxation, and impose another and higher rate, or additional taxes, by virtue of the State sovereignty over the whole subject of taxation, unless there has been some express contract in limitation of the power upon a consideration deemed to be a part of the value of the grant of a charter — Redf. on Railw. 503, 533, n.; Gwinn v. Tax Ap. Ct., 3 How. (U. S.) 133; Providence Bank v. Billings, 4 Pet. 574. By her charter the stock of this corporation was exempted from taxation for State and county purposes. By the act of 1852, the Company was subjected to taxation on her property for State purposes, in consideration of the grant of lands as it was expressed, and the company accepted the grant with the conditions. But it does not follow that the State had either by the charter given, or by the statute, set any limit upon the sovereign power to subject the corporation, or its property, to taxation within the limits of a
The judgment will be affirmed.