38 Wash. 255 | Wash. | 1905
This is an action to foreclose a delinquency tax certificate issued to Jefferson county by the county treasurer. The taxes involved were levied for the year 1897, and the real estate described in the certificate belonged then, and now belongs, to the First National Bank of Port. Townsend, the defendant in the action. The defendant filed its written objections to the foreclosure of the certificate, the same being to the following effect: That said real estate was assessed by the county assessor for the
The several briefs on this appeal together comprise' nearly three hundred and fifty pages, of printed matter. It is manifestly impracticable, within the reasonable limits of an opinion, to intelligibly discuss, all the questions argued by counsel. Por the disposal of the case, we find it unnecessary to do so. The evidence in the record is to the effect that, in 1897, the county assessor did not assess
Under our views of the case, it is unnecessary to discuss that question. Whether the assessment originated with the assessor or with the board, it is, nevertheless, true that an attempt was made to assess $13,000 to. the hank upon its stock, and, based upon that assessment, the county now seeks to collect the taxes which are in controversy here. Section 21 of the revenue act of 1897, Laws 1897, p. 147, Pierce’s Code-, § 8613, requires that the stock of a bank shall be assessed to its owners. The assessment here was made to the bank, and not to the owners of the stock, and was, therefore, clearly without the authority of the statute. It. is true that §§22 and 23 of said act, being Pierce’s Code, §§ 8614 and 8615, provide that the bank shall pay the taxes to the collector, and may have a lien upon the stock therefor. This method of payment does not, however, exclude payment by each individual stockholder against whom the stock must be assessed. That it was not the intention to make the bank primarily liable for payment is evident from the concluding sentence of § 22, as follows: “If such tax is not so paid, the said bank or other corporation shall be liable for the same.” It is thus apparent that the bank is not liable in the first in
It is insisted by the respondent that the bank stands somewhat in the position of a garnishee; that, if it pays its tax and charges it relatively to the stockholders, the same result is obtained for the stockholders as if paid by them direct, and that no injury results. Respondent cites First Nat. Bank v. Chehalis County, 6 Wash. 64, 32 Pac. 1051, in support of this argument. It was held in that case that an assessment of stock to the bank in sólido was valid, and the theory of respondent advanced here was applicable to that case. But it will be observed by reference to the opinion that the court was considering our revenue law of 1891, which provided for the assessment to be made against the bank, and not against the stockholder. The court pointed out the distinction between our statute, as it then was in that particular, and those of Ohio and Kansas, which provided for assessment of the stock to the shareholders. After that decision, and in 189 Y, as we have seen, our legislature provided for assessment to the shareholders, and there was no statute authorizing this assessment to be made to the bank.
The argument that no injury can result for the reason that, when the bank pays this tax, it will charge it to the account of the shareholders, seems plausible, but we must remember that, under Pierce’s Code, §-8593, each shareholder may deduct his indebtedness from the gross amount of his credits, in determining the net amount he shall be assessed. That opportunity was not given the shareholders here. They were not originally assessed, and they had not been made parties to any of the proceedings. Respondent argues, and the court found, that the stock was assessed to the individual shareholders, as well as to the bank; but there is no evidence that it was assessed to the
Respondent comments upon the liberality of modern tax procedure, and upon our own decisions in support thereof. We recognize that the procedure has been greatly liberalized, and’properly so, in the interest of collecting the necessary revenué for the purposes of state and county government. We have endeavored, in our decisions, to meet the evident spirit of our statutes in that regard. But we do not see our way clear to sustain a tax upon bank stock which has been assessed against the bank, when the law specifically says it shall be assessed to the several owners of the stock. Even though the result of sustaining the tax might lead indirectly to payment by the owners, still their rights are prejudiced when the assessment is not made to them individually, and their indebtedness respectively deducted therefrom.
We believe the judgment was erroneous. It is therefore reversed, and the cause remanded, with instructions to enter judgment removing the cloud of the personal property tax from the real estate described in the certificate, and requiring the respondent to accept the amount tendered, and receipt for it as the i balance in full of all taxe9 against the land for the year 1891.