17 P. 457 | Idaho | 1888
By the act of Congress of March 3, 1875' (1 Supp. 1J. S. Rex. Stats., p. 91), the right of way was granted through the public lands of the United States in this territory to any railway company duly organized under the laws of any state or territory, upon certain conditions, to the extent of one hundred feet on each side of the center line of said road, “also grounds adjacent to such right of way for station buildings, depots, machine-shops, sidetracks, turnouts, and' water stations — not to exceed in amount twenty acres for each ten miles of road.” The respondent company was duly organized, and obtained the right of way, under said act, through the lands of the United States in this territory, and built their road thereon. Section 1463 of the Revised Statutes of this territory is as follows: “The president, secretary, superintendent, or other-principal accounting officers of any railroad or telegraph company having property in this territory, whether incorporated under the law of this territory or not, when any portion of the property of said railroad or telegraph company is situated in more than one county, shall list for assessment and taxation, verified by the oath of the person so listing, all the following described property belonging to said corporation within the territory, viz.: Roadbed, superstructure, right of way, and all structures situated thereon, rolling stock, sidetrack, telegraph lines, furniture and fixtures, and personal property belonging to such corporation. Such list shall contain, first, the number of miles of such railroad or telegraph line in the territory, and the number of miles of the same in each organized county therein; and such return must be made to the territorial comptroller on or before the first day of April, annually. If the return aforesaid be not received by said comptroller by the third day of April, he must thereupon proceed to obtain the facts and information aforesaid in any manner that may appear most likely to secure the same correctly, and for that same purpose may address a written communication to the corporation, or to some officer of the corporation .who has failed or refused to
The officers of the railroad company, in listing its property, pursuant to this statute, for assessment by the territorial board of equalization, listed, together with their road and right of way, the machine and repair shops, and the other property described in the complaint, which is situate at Shoshone in Alturas ••county. The said board assessed the right of way, and such property as they found to be thereon, but did not assess' the property described in the complaint, because they thought the same was not upon the right of way, and that they had no authority, under the statute, to do so, and notified the assessor of Alturas county of this fact. The county assessor then assessed the same,- and made return thereof. The respondent then brought this action to restrain this appellant from assessing or collecting any tax on the property described in the complaint. The case coming on to be heard, the facts were stipulated as follows: “1. It is hereby stipulated, by and between the parties hereto, that the machine and repair shops, roundhouse, and other buildings, mentioned in the pleadings herein, and situated at Shoshone station, in said county, are more than 100 feet from the main track of plaintiff’s railway, and within 400 feet thereof; that the said main track, at and near shops and other buildings, runs in an easterly direction, and said shops are on the south side of said main track; that there are three sidetracks, running through or near said shops and buildings, which are united, by means of switches, both to the east and west thereof, into a single sidetrack; and such single track unites, by means of switches, with the said main track both east and west of said shops. 3. That said sidetracks, so extending to, through, and near said shops and other buildings, afford the means of running locomotive engines and cars from said main track into and out of the said shops and roundhouse and connect with the turntable, situate between said main track and said roundhouse, constructed and used for the purpose of turning engines. 3. That said sidetracks, so extending to said shops, roundhouse, and turntable, and the said turntable and buildings, are used by the plaintiff for changing its engines and cars, affording the means of necessary repairs, and also to en
We are now called upon to construe the statute above quoted, so far as it relates to this action. In construing statutes of this nature, Judge Cooley, in his very excellent work on taxation, says: “The underlying principle of all construction is that the intent of the legislature should be sought in the words employed to express it; and that when found it should be made to govern not only in all proceedings which are had under the law, but in all judicial controversies which bring those proceedings under review. Beyond the words employed, if the meaning is plain and intelligible, neither officer nor- court is to go in search of the legislative intent, but the legislature must be understood to intend what is plainly expressed; and nothing then remains but to give the intent effect.” (Cooley on Taxation, 3d ed., 364.) We fully approve the above rule of construction. It is contended by respondent that a statute almost identical with ours has been construed by the supreme court of the United States in Railway Co. v. Cheyenne, 113 U. S. 516, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 601. If such was the case, we would follow the construction placed upon it by that court, implicitly. After a careful examination.of that case, we do not so understand it. There the territorial board of equalization had assessed ibe right of way, as it was clearly their duty to do; but the city authorities, disregarding such assessment, sought by virtue of their corporate power to assess the same property, and the question there litigated was as to which assessment was correct. The court there holds in favor of the assessment by the territorial board of equalization. We do not understand that the question in the suit at bar was litigated in that case. We presume that all of the machine-shops and other buildings there
For the reasons before given we think the judgment of the district court should be reversed. It is so ordered.