47 Colo. 72 | Colo. | 1909
delivered the opinion of the court:
This is a controversy between a taxpayer and the treasurer of Weld county. Two important questions are argued by counsel. The first is as to the constitutionality of the proviso of sec. 14 of the general revenue act of 1901, Sess. Laws 1901, page 244, reading: “That where any property is mortgaged, conveyed or pledged for the security of a loan or debt then owing, the said property and the notes, mortgage, deed of trust, trust deed, contract or other conveyance, shall be assessed as a unit, and as one and the same, and as of one value and as the value of said property so mortgaged, pledged or otherwise conveyed only, and any such notes, mortgages, deeds of trust, trust deeds, contract or conveyance, shall not be otherwise returned or assessed.” The other involves the validity of the action of the county assessor in adding to the list of property included in the schedule, filed by the taxpayer, certain moneys and credits which the latter omitted to enumerate.
It is thoroughly established in this jurisdiction, to which the citation of our decisions is unnecessary, that a constitutional question will not be passed upon unless it is essential to the determination of the case in hand. Our decision upon the second question above mentioned, which is whether the county assessor complied with the statutes in listing the secured credits of the taxpayer, requires a reversal of the judgment below, which determined that such com
The further contention of defendant that plaintiff may not maintain this action to enjoin the collection of the tax because he might have had appropriate relief, if he was entitled to any, before the
But defendants say that if the assessor had made the change in plaintiff’s schedule at such a time as that the latter might have been, in accordance with the statute, given notice thereof, the omission to observe these statutory requirements does not affect the validity of the assessment. We are cited to sec. 122, which says that “No informality in complying with the above requirements (to which the assessor must conform) shall render any proceedings for the collection of taxes illegal,” and to sec. 125, which provides that in ease of the failure or neglect of the assessor to make a particular assessment, the same shall be done by the treasurer, and to sec. 153, which confers upon the county treasurer the power, after the assessment roll has been delivered to him, to put thereon property which has been omitted, and to sec. 175, that “Omissions, errors, or defects in form in any assessment list or tax roll, * * * may be supplied or corrected by the assessor at any time before the return of the tax roll to the treasurer, or by the treasurer at any time after its receipt,” and to that part, of sec. 79 which says: “No failure of the owner to return his property for assessment, * * # or to procure the errors in the assessment to be corrected, and no irregularity, error or omission in the assessment of any property or in the levy of any tax, shall in any manner affect the legality of any tax levied upon such property, nor any right or title to
Reversed and remanded.