57 Iowa 256 | Iowa | 1881
The plaintiff alleges that he is a resident taxpayer of the city of Keokuk, and that the receipt of the money upon the reduced assessment of $17,000 was illegal, and void, and without authority of law, and contrary to the best interests of the city of Keokuk and the taxpayers of said city, and tlie whole amount of the tax could have been collected from the Commercial Bank. It may be conceded that in some other States a rule has been adopted which would deny the right of the plaintiff to maintain this action. See Doolittle v. The Board of Supervisors of Broom County, 15 N. Y., 155; Roosevelt v. Draper, 23 N. Y., 318; Craft v. Commissioners of Jackson County, 5 Kas., 518. These cases hold that it requires some individual interest distinet from that which belongs to every inhabitant of a town or county to give the party complaining a standing in court, where it is an alleged delinquency in the administration of public affairs which is ealled in question, and that the fact of owning taxable property is not such a peculiarity as takes the case out of the rule. A different rule, however has been adopted in this State. In State ex rel. Rice v. Smith, 7 Iowa, 186, and State ex rel. Byers v. Bailey, Id., 390, it was held that in a matter of public right any citizen may he relator in an application for a writ of mandamus. In Collins v. Ripley, County Judge, 8 Iowa, 129, it was held that a citizen and resident of a county interested in the public welfare may petition for and obtain an injunction to restrain a
II. The third ground of demurrer is as follows: “Because the acts and matters of which plaintiff complains are not judicial, and defendants are not acting judicially in the matter of which the plaintiff complained.” This ground of demurrer the court sustained. That the ac
The court erred in sustaining the third ground of the demurrer.
Reversed.