133 Iowa 252 | Iowa | 1907
It is conceded that defendant once paid the taxes levied and assessed against its outstanding stock for the years 1899 to 1903 inclusive, but it is alleged in the petition that the corporate shares were omitted from taxation for these years, that defendant paid taxes on moneys and credits for each year, that there was omitted from taxation for the year 1899 the sum of $76,450.60 upon which no taxes were paid and that defendant bank had for that year invested in government bonds the sum of $76,450. The same charge is made for the year 1900 save that it is alleged that there was omitted from taxation in that year the sum of $84,610, and’ that defendant had for that year invested in government bonds and Mt. Pleasant Waterworks bonds the sum of .$84,610. As to the year 1901 the allegations are the same save as to the amount, which is said to have been $61,500. As to 1902 the same save as to amount which as to this year was $100,000, and the sum of $100,000 is said to have been invested in government bonds. As to 1903 the figures are given as $15,000, and defendant was alleged to have had that amount in water.bonds. It is further alleged that the statements made by the bank to the assessors were not true,
Defendant in answer denied that it had not paid assessments upon its capital stock, admitted it made statements to the assessors for the years in question, but denied that it withheld therefrom any property belonging to it or to its stockholders, and admitted that it had ■ the amount in bonds charged against it. It averred that its stock was valued and assessed by the assessor for the years in question, and that it had paid all taxes assessed against it. It denied all fraud in the transaction. As to 156 shares of stock it averred that no valid assessment was ever made by the treasurer against it, and it denied that the county treasurer had ever made any valid assessment against the defendant or any of its stockholders for the years in question. It averred the collection by the county officials of taxes upon the corporate stock for the years named, and further pleaded that, as plaintiff failed to return or to offer the return of the taxes so collected, it was barred and es-topped from maintaining this suit, and it absolutely denied
Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, Nov. 13, 1903.
To G. W. McAdam, Treasurer and N. S. Oxley, Auditor,
Plenry County, Iowa:
National State Bank, Mt. Pleasant. Bobt. Gillis, President, Jas. T. Whiting, Cashier. I find that said bank should be assessed on moneys and credits omitted from assessment and on account of government bonds and water bonds held by them not assessed and on account of their corporate stock surplus and undivided earnings, exclusive of real estate:
Tor years 1899, $ 76,400, taxes $1,039.99 and interest.
1900, 78,610, taxes 1,071.04 and interest.
1901, 61,500, taxes 837.17 and interest.
1902, 100,000, taxes 1,395.00 and interest.
1903, 15,000.
Ben McCoy, Agent for Said County.
Received November 13, 1903. O. N. Knight, Deputy Treasurer.
Upon receipt of thiq report the said officers gave notice to the several stockholders that they were the owners of moneys and credits consisting of notes, etc., which was omitted for taxation naming specifically certain shares of stock in the defendant bank and that they should appear before the county auditor on December 5, 1903, and show cause why the property should riot be listed and assessed against them, and that, failing to do so, the same would be placed upon the tax books for collection. The treasurer in this same notice made demand for payment of the amount said property should have been assessed for and gave notice that, upon failure to pay the same within 30 days from December 5th, he would bring action to collect the same. Neither the defendant nor any of the stockholders appeared in response to this notice, and, upon the day fixed for their appearance, it is claimed that the county treasurer levied an assessment upon each of the stockholders to the amount of the stock held by him, and against the bank in the sums stated in the several counts of the petition. It is this alleged assessment which the plaintiff is seeking to enforce in this action, except for the taxes of the year 1903 which, as we understand it, were, it is claimed, extended upon the tax list by the county auditor as omitted property.
We now proceed to the steps taken by the auditor and treasurer. The only testimony on this subject aside from some record entries to which we shall presently refer is as follows:
Oii the 5th the treasurer and the auditor was here, and the parties did not come in, and I talked it over with both of them together and separately, about the situation, and told them what I thought was the best thing to do, and the way I ■had found it, and told the treasurer and told the auditor both that any assessment that the treasurer should make — that is, of certain years he should make — he should enter it on his books, and for the current year the auditor should enter it on his books, and, it being quite a complicated matter and so'many parties involved, and just what the situation with the stockholders ■ each year was concerned, they asked me to make up; that is, to write up what is in a sense a journal entry, I suppose, known by myself. It is the Exhibit No. 7, and the treasurer told me he would put it on his books, and
Again, the witness testified that before December 5th he had, with the auditor and treasurer, taken up the condition of the defendant bank’s taxes and assets as he claimed it, and that on the 5th day of December, 1903, when the stockholders of defendant bank did not appear in response to the notices sent them by the treasurer, that he^ witness, went over the matter himself with the treasurer and auditor and gave them the situation as he found it, and wanted them to make an assessment, and “ they did make it, and asked me, as I said before (defendant objects), and told me, because of the intricacies of it in this instance, to prepare such a record as would conform to their action in directing or making the assessment, and that I prepared this paper for them under that direction and from this paper; that is, you will find, I think, that the assessments are a copy as it appears on the books is as I returned it.”
Plaintiff offered in evidence the assessment against the defendant bank in gross as found in page 19 of the tax list identified and introduced for Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, for the year 1899, which is in words and figures as follows:
Page 19.
Tax List of Mt. Pleasant Township, County of Henry, State of Iowa, for the Year 1899. -
Name of Owner. Value Personalty.
National State Bank (by McCoy) 19,100
Consolidated. General School. Corporation. Total Tax.
152.12 343.80 444.07 1,039.99
Int. at 6 per cent.
Some loose sheets were found which are identified as being the list made by the country treasurer and auditor. One is as follows:
15}*. tax list of the city of mt. pleasant, county of henry, STATE OF IOWA, FOR YEAR 1900.
The one for 1901 is pratically a copy of the one for 1900. The one for 1902 is practically a copy of the one for 1899. And the one for 1903, which was made up hy some one, but save for the statement appearing thereon, it does not appear who this was, reads as follows:
These seem to have been bound up with, or inserted in, the tax lists of the county for the respective years.
r It is perfectly manifest that there was no assessment for the years 1900 and 1901. The taxes, whatever they may have been, were for the year 1897. There is no listing of stocks anywhere, and no sufficient showing of any record of assessment. The assessments, even if properly made> were not in accord with the notices sent to the stockholders, nor do they support the allegations of the petition. The bank could not he assessed upon anything. The assessment must be
We doubt very much whether there was any assessment at all in this case. None of the parties whose duty it was to malee it were witnesses in the case, or, if they were, they did not testify to having made it, and there are no records of an assessment save those above set out, and these were on loose sheets which were afterward inserted in the county tax lists, but by whom does not appear. Kehe v. Blackhawk County, supra, is an authority for the proposition that no assessments of any kind were made. The tax ferret had no authority to make the assessment, and he is the only one who testified as to how it was done, and his testimony has been. hitherto set out. Courts have no authority either to make or| to correct assessments, and, unless these are made up by all proper person and in a legal manner, there can be no recovery, even if we are convinced, as we are here, that de- -
The supposed action of the county auditor in adding omitted property to the tax list is not shown to have been done in such a way as to makei defendant liable, and whatever was done by him, and as to this there is no very definite testimony, is subject to the same objections as the act of the treasurer. No such proceedings were had as to make defendant liable for the taxes sought to be collected, or there is not sufficient testimony to establish such assessment as would make defendant liable, and the trial court was right in dismissing the petition.
The judgment is therefore affirmed.