146 Iowa 347 | Iowa | 1910
About August 31, 1906, the defendant received from the county treasurer notice that, as informed, “certain moneys and credits” belonging to him or under his control, in the amount of $250,000 in 1906, and in each of the four preceding years, had been omitted from assessment, and September 14th at ten o’clock a. m. was designated as the time of hearing. At that time defendant appeared before the treasurer, but that officer referred him to the person employed under chapter 50, Acts 28th General Assembly, to discover omitted property, and commonly known as the tax ferret law, and after some conversation with the latter, hearing was postponed until the next day. The defendant returned, but the treasurer was away, and plaintiff denied to the tax ferret that he had any property not assessed or liable to assessment, and asserted that he had paid all taxes he owed. Later, and on the same day, but without other or further hearing, he received notice and demand signed by the treasurer, stating that he had listed and assessed property at the actual value of $250,000 for each of the five years, and that unless the taxes amounting to $26,149.46 were paid within thirty days, suit would be instituted therefor. The defendant appealed to the district court, and upon hearing a motion of the treasurer to confirm the assessment was sustained, and‘judgment entered accordingly. Thereupon the defendant appealed to this court.
Property to the amount of $250,000, omitted in 1902; tax due $4,625; interest $1,040.63: Total ................................ $5,665.63
Property to the amount of $250,000, omitted in 1903; tax due $4,562.50; interest $752.81. Total .................................. 5,315.31
Property to the amount of $250,000, omitted in 1904; tax due $4,531.25; interest $475.78. • Total ................................ 5,007.03
Property to the amount of $250,000, omitted in 1905; tax due $4,968.75; interest $223.59. Total ................................. 5,192.74
Property to the amount of $250,000, omitted in 1906; tax due $4,968.75; interest -. Total ........................... 4,968.75
Total amount due ..................... $26,149.46
To this was added that, unless paid within thirty days, suit would be begun. It will be observed that this is the demand exacted by section 1374 of the Code, and purports to state the assessment as made, and on which the payment of taxes and interest was demanded. It was equivalent to a transcript of the assessment as entered in the treasurer’s omitted property tax list book; and, as it was a paper such as the treasurer was authorized to execute in the procedure prescribed by section 1374 of the Code for the collection of taxes, the court, in the
But appellee argues that a transcript has been held in former decisions to be essential to a review of an assessment.
In Frost v. Board of Review, 114 Iowa, 103, there was nothing before the court indicating complaint by the tax payer or showing an assessment. In City of Marion v. Railway, 120 Iowa, 259, the filing of a transcript was held not to be jurisdictional and therefore that the court did not err in allowing it to be filed in the course of the trial. This was followed in City of Marion v. Nat. Loan & Ins. Co., 122 Iowa, 629, the court saying that: “While jurisdiction is conferred by service and filing of a proper notice, it is nevertheless proper that a transcript be filed; and the court should require the filing thereof, not only that the proceedings upon which the appeal is based may be clearly and fairly brought to the attention of the court, but that the court record may furnish a proper basis upon which to rest a decree.” In Peterson v. Board of Review, 138 Iowa, 717, neither notice of appeal nor. transcript was filed. Nothing/ in that case indicates an intention to overrule the cited cases, and all held was that to warrant a review of an assessment, such assessment, or the next best evidence thereof (a certified copy), must be before the court. What was said in the City of Marion v. Nat. L. & I. Co., supra, and quoted in the Peterson case— i. e., that “consent of parties, much less mere silence on the part of the appellee, can not be accepted as sufficient
III. The only evidence bearing on the merits was thait of defendant. He was seventy-eight years of age, with memory somewhat impaired. Because of this, it is difficult to ascertain with accuracy the amount of moneys and credits omitted. It appeared that, with others, he disposed of an oatmeal mill ait Ft. Hodge in 1901, and as part compensation received bonds of the Western Cereal Company in the sum of $33,000. He appears to have disposed of' a portion of these in 1901. At least, he testified to having but. $1,500 left in 1902. As he retained $8,000 of those up to the time of the trial, and exchanged bonds to the amount of $10,000 in 1905 for mining stock, he must have had bonds of the face value of $18,000 in 1902. We are satisfied that none of these were included in the assessments of 1902 or 1903 or thereafter. The testimony that these bonds were worth eighty-eight cents on the dollar was undisputed. No other items of moneys and credits were proven.
Modified and remanded.