19 Md. 13 | Md. | 1862
delivered the.opinion-of this Court:
This is an appeal from a judgment obtained in a suit at law, brought to recover taxes assessed on mortgages of property in the city of Baltimore, made to the appellant as trustee of the estate of Joseph Thornburg, deceased. At the time of the assessment and institution of the suit, the appellant was a resident of Howard county, the cestui que trusts being, at the same time, residents of Baltimore city, and the question as to the liability of the appellant for the taxes assessed,-is the only one jircsented.
We are not aware that the Acts of Assembly, regulating the imposition and collection of taxes, have effected any modification of the rules of law, which otherwise must govern the determination of this question. The appellee, in resorting to its remedy at law, assumes that the taxes assessed constitute a legal cause of action, and that the appellant, as the holder of the legal title of the property
In this case, the appellant was the holder of the legal estate, upon the vahinihn of which the taxes sought to be recovered wer< i i n;- -u Í, mi'! upon our construction of the 13th Art. o'" t’. ihg’rs, as well as upon the general rule stated, he was í'ic proper person to be assessed for their payment: The declaration in that Art. of the duty or obligation of every person holding property in the State to contribute his proportion of public taxes, according to his actual worth in real or personal property, must be understood as intending and meaning a legal obligation to contribute to the public taxes, according to actual worth, and in that sense, the obligation for the payment of taxes falls upon the trustee ox holder -of the naked legal' title. Upon this construction, the obligation of one entitled to the .beneficial interest of property held by a trustee, to contribute to the public taxes, according to actual worth,, is none the less satisfied, for in such a case the assessment of the tax to the holder of the legal estate, through him, reaches and fastens upon the interest of the beneficial owner. In our opinion, a like construction should be-given to the provisions of the Acts of 1841, ch. 23, 1847, ch. 246, and 1852, ch. 327, requiring all property owned by persons residents of this State, and not permanently located elsewhere within the State, to be valued to the owner in the county, district or city wherein he or she may reside, or, in other words, that these provisions contemplate and
We think the taxes, sought to be recovered in this case, were assessed without authority, and therefore reverse the judgment.
Judgment reversed.