80 Mo. 224 | Mo. | 1883
Lead Opinion
This was a suit before a justice of the peace to recover the value of a three-horse breaking plow, a two-horse cultivator and a double-hinged harrow alleged to have been wrongfully taken by defendant. The suit was dismissed by the justice for want of jurisdiction. On appeal to the Hannibal court of common pleas the case was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury. The defendant admitted the taking and carrying away of the property. He then proved that he was the collector of Levee township, Pike county, Illinois, and that in his capacity as such he seized the property in question in said township under and by virtue of the collector’s tax-books of said township, and a warrant thereto annexed, commanding him to collect the personal tax appearing in said tax-books against plaintiff; that in pursuance with said authority the property sued for was seized and sold, and the proceeds- applied to the payment of the tax.
It was objected at the trial that the tax-book given in evidence did not contain upon its face a descriptive list of the personal property upon which the tax was claimed, and that the book which constituted a part of his authority was for this reason not in conformity with the statute of Illinois, and, therefore, no justification for the levy. It was claimed by plaintiff’ that the collcctox-’s book should contain an enumeration or list of the different kinds of personal property possessed by the tax-payer as fully as given into the assesssor by the tax-payer, and that the statement of the aggregate amount or value was not sufficient. In this case the statement was of an aggregate sum or value, and was not a statement of kind or quality in detail. The learned judge deciding the case seems to have given
I do not wish to be understood as holding that the statutes of Illinois require the statement in detail of the tax-payer’s personalty to be extended in the assessor’s or collector’s books, as maintained by plaintiff and decided by the court below. I have examined the statute cited by counsel, and am satisfied that an extension in the total or sum aggregate, is all that is required.
It was objected by plaintiff’ that the warrant itself was addressed to "William G-atts, collector of the township, in
As tbe evidence constituting tbe defendant’s defense against tbe charge of trespass was of a documentary and legal character, and in all material matters of fact was not contradicted, I think be ought to be relieved from another trial in a foreign jurisdiction, by entry in bis favor of the judgment which should have been entered at tbe trial. Accordingly tbe judgment is reversed and tbe cause remanded, and tbe court is directed to enter judgment for defendant.
Dissenting Opinion
If the above is to be considered as indorsing tbe case of Rubey v. Shain, I am to be marked as dissenting, and refer to my individual opinion in the case of Town of Warrensburg v. Miller, 17 Mo. 61.