155 Ky. 412 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1913
Opinion of the Court by
Dismissing appeals.
These appeals involve the same questions and will he considered in one opinion.
Appellees owned land and other property in Pike County, which they duly listed with the assessor for the year 1913. Subsequently the hoard of supervisors of
The statute under which appellees appealed from the action of the quarterly court is section 4128, Kentucky Statutes, which provides as follows:
“Any informality or irregularity in the execution of their duties as supervisors, and any failure of duty on their part, shall not render any assessment invalid. But any taxpayer feeling himself aggrieved by the action of said board of supervisors, may appeal to the quarterly court within thirty days after the final adjournment of said board, by filing with the judge of said court a certified copy, under the hand of the clerk of said board, of the action of said board. And as to further appeals, he shall have the same rights as are now allowed by law in civil cases.”
It will be observed that this section confines the right of appeal from the action of the board of supervisors to the quarterly court, thence to the circuit court and to the Court of appeals to the aggrieved taxpayer alone. There is not only nothing in the section to justify the reasonable inference that the same right was intended to be conferred on the county and State, but section 4260, relating to property omitted from assessment, expressly provides that “either party may appeal from a decision of the county court to the circuit court, and then to the Court of Appeals, as in other civil cases,” thus showing that where the Legislature intended the right of
The argument that it is unjust and unfair to give the right of appeal to a taxpayer, and withhold it from the county and State is one that should he addressed to the legislative department. It is well settled that it is within the power of the Legislature, in the absence of some constitutional inhibition, to prescribe the cases in which and the courts to which parties shall he entitled to bring a cause for review. In this State the matter is wholly within the discretion of the legislative department, it may grant or withhold the right of appeal as it sees fit, and the fact that it granted the right of appeal to an aggrieved taxpayer, and withheld it from the county and State, in no way affects the validity of the act. Paducah Railway Co. v. McCracken Co., 105 Ky., 472, 49 S. W., 178. Doubtless the Legislature felt that the interests of the State and county would be protected by its assessing officers. But whatever may have been its purpose in withholding the right of appeal from the State and county, its right to do so cannot he questioned.
Since neither the statute in question nor the general statutory and code provisions with reference to appeals confer the right of appeal on the State and county from the judgment of the quarterly court in cases like those under consideration, it follows that neither the circuit court nor this court has jurisdiction to entertain the appeals. For this reason the appeals are dismissed.