192 Ind. 574 | Ind. | 1922
Lead Opinion
The auditor of Huntington county, after ■notice to appellee, placed on the tax duplicate, as omitted property, certain shares of stock in certain foreign corporations, as having been owned by appellee in each of a series of years, fixed a value on such omitted property for the different years of from $43,070 to $63,815, and assessed against appellee taxes thereon for those years in the total amount of $26,155.12.
Appellee duly filed his bond, under §10310a Burns 1914, Acts 1911 p. 479; see §10139w9 Burns’ Supp. 1921, Acts 1919 p. 198, §256, for an appeal to the circuit court, where evidence was heard, a special finding of facts was made, conclusions of law were stated thereon, and judgment was rendered in conformity with the finding and conclusions, to the effect that the total amount of taxes on omitted property for which appellee was liable amounted to $4,556.16.
Appellant moved to dismiss the proceeding in the circuit court, for the alleged reason that the statute granting an appeal from the auditor to the circuit court is unconstitutional. He excepted to the first conclusion of law, and moved for a new trial, in each instance presenting the same question. Each motion was overruled,
If the statute granting an appeal to the circuit court is unconstitutional, and that court had no jurisdiction, all 'of its acts and its judgment necessarily would be void. But an appeal from the circuit court to this court may be prosecuted for the purpose of questioning the validity of the judgment appealed from, even though such judgment is void for lack of jurisdiction of the trial court to render it. Cushman v. Hussey (1918), 187 Ind. 228, 235, 118 N. E. 816; Baltimore, etc., R. Co. v. Board (1900), 156 Ind. 260, 269, 58 N. E. 837, 59 N. E. 856; Weaver v. Ferguson (1917), 68 Ind. App. 169, 178, 117 N. E. 659; Ewbank’s Manual §§267, 289; 3 C. J. 467; 33 L. R. A. (N. S.) 733, note.
The statute in question reads as follows: “That from any finding, conclusion or decision of any county assessor, any county auditor, any county treasurer or any other officer or officers or board whose duty it may be to investigate, decide, assess and place on the tax duplicate of any county of this state, any property subject to taxation and omitted to be returned, listed and assessed for taxation, the owner of such property or other person against whom such omitted property has been assessed shall have the right to appeal from such finding, conclusion or decision to the circuit court of the county wherein said omitted property is so listed or added for taxation: Provided, That such appeal shall be taken within ten days after the entering of such
The first objection to the validity of this statute urged by appellant is that it is void for uncertainty. But the established practice in preparing and certifying transcripts of the proceedings of inferior tribunals when appeals are taken therefrom to the circuit court, and of that court in hearing and deciding such appeals, and the power of the court to adopt rules for its own guidance where the statute is silent must be taken into consideration. And the statute should be understood to confer authority to consider and pass upon judicial questions, of which the court has jurisdiction, if there be any such questions involved, rather than an attempt to confer authority to pass upon questions which the Constitution forbids it to decide. If a statute is susceptible of a reasonable construction which makes it intelligible and does not conflict with the Constitution, it will be given that construction and upheld, rather than a construction which would make it invalid. State v. Barrett, Aud. (1909), 172 Ind. 169, 174, 87 N. E. 7; School Town v. Heiney (1912), 178 Ind. 1, 6, 98 N. E. 628, 43 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1023, Ann. Cas. 1915B 1136; Crittenberger v. State, etc., Trust Co. (1920), 189 Ind. 411, 425, 127 N. E. 552. Within the rules above
Where property is listed and valued by an assessor engaged in listing all the property of his township for taxation for the current year, the circumstances are not the same as where a county auditor undertakes to fix the value of certain omitted property a year, five years, or a dozen years after the close of the year for which the tax is to be paid. Such a difference of circumstances justified different provisions for taking an appeal from the assessment, as well as different provisions for making the assessment. And we do not think the fact that appeals from the action of the township assessor lie to the county board of review, and from it to the state board of tax commissioners, while appeals from an assessment of omitted property lie to the circuit court, makes the statute a special law for the assessment of taxes within the meaning of Art. 4, §22, of the Constitution.
Classification of subjects of legislation that is natural, fair and reasonable is permitted by the Constitution. Strange v. Board (1910), 173 Ind. 640, 645, 91 N. E. 242; Hirth-Krause Co. v. Cohen (1912), 177 Ind. 1, 10, 97 N. E. 1, Ann. Cas. 1914C 708;
Whether the property added to appellant’s tax list was taxable, whether the valuation appealed from expressed the honest judgment of the auditor, as controlled by that provision of the Constitution (Art. 10, §1, Constitution), which requires a uniform and equal rate of taxation, or was arbitrarily adopted to serve the interests of himself or of a “tax ferret” acting as his adviser, and whether the statutes under which the assessing officer assumed to act were constitutional, and many other similar questions which might arise in such a proceeding, were judicial questions that might have been brought before the court for determination by proper proceedings, even if there had been no statute authorizing an appeal.. Taylor v. Louisville, etc., R. Co. (1898), 88 Fed. 350, 31 C. C. A. 537; Greene v. Louisville, etc., R. Co. (1916), 244 U. S. 499, 37 Sup. Ct. 673, 61 L. Ed. 1280, Ann. Cas. 1917E 88 ; Oregon, etc., R. Co. v. Jackson (1901), 38 Ore. 589, 64 Pac. 307, 65 Pac. 369.
Nothing in the Constitution of Indiana forbids the consideration and decision of judicial questions of this kind when, removed into the court under authority of law, by an “appeal,” instead of being presented in an original action, begun by complaint and summons. Board v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1867), 44 Ill. 229; George v. People (1897), 167 Ill. 447, 459, 47 N. E. 741. A great many decisions of the courts of many states recognize the validity of appeals to the courts from decisions of taxing officers when author-, ized by statute. Ex parte State (1919), 203 Ala. 444, 83 So. 334; Cochran v. State (1921), (Ala.) 89 So. 278; Ex parte Fort Smith, etc., B. Co. (1896), 62 Ark. 461, 36 S. W. 1060; Mohave County v. Stephens (1915), 17 Ariz. 165, 149 Pac. 670; Singer
There remains for consideration the question whether .or not an appeal from the circuit court to the Supreme Court was authorized, either by the particular statute under which the appeal from the county auditor to the circuit court was taken, or under the general law governing appeals from the circuit court to the Supreme Court. The statute, as above set out (§10310a Bums 1914, supra) contains no reference to an appeal beyond the circuit court. Appellee insists that this is a special proceeding, and falls within the rule that, unless an appeal is expressly ’granted from
The precise question now before the court has not been heretofore presented to a court of last resort in this state, so far as we are advised. But it has been decided many times in other jurisdictions, where the courts have held that granting an appeal from the assessing officef to the circuit court does not carry with it the right of a further appeal to the Supreme Court, if that right is not conferred by the statute which authorizes the appeal to be taken to the circuit court. Mohave County v. Stephens, supra; Marion County v. Wilson, supra; Board v. Guarantee State Bank, supra; Grady County v. Chickasha Cotton Oil Co. (1917), 63 Okla. 201, 164 Pac. 457; Smith Securities Co. v. Multnomah Co., supra; McLean v. State (1907), 61 W. Ya. 537, 56 S. E. 884; Bluefield, etc., Co. v. State (1908), 63 W. Va. 480, 60 S. E. 403.
Appellant admits that the right of appeal is statutory, and only exists where it has been granted by statute. But he insists that it exists in the case at bar, by virtue of the general provisions of the Civil Code, in support of which contention he has cited a number of decisions to the effect that where an appeal is taken from a county board of commissioners to the circuit court, a further appeal may be taken from that court to the Supreme Court, and a case holding that such an appeal may be maintained from the judgment of the circuit court rendered in an appeal from the refusal of the State Board
We conclude that such an appeal is not an action for which the general provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure provide an appeal to this court, but is a special proceeding to which those provisions do not apply. And since the statute under which an appeal was taken from the county auditor to the circuit court provides only for an appeal to that court, and makes no provision for appealing in turn from its judgment to this court, this appeal cannot be maintained.
The appeal is dismissed.
Rehearing
On Petition for Rehearing.
Counsel for appellant have cited cases in support of the proposition that, where the circuit court has rendered final judgment in an action for the enforcement or protection of private rights and the re
And a proceeding to obtain the appointment of a guardian for a person alleged to be of unsound mind may be appealed by such person, though it has been held that the petitioner cannot appeal. Berry v. Berry (1897), 147 Ind. 176, 179, 46 N. E. 470; State, ex rel. v. Branyan (1903), 30 Ind. App. 502, 66 N. E. 464.
But in all of these cases, and in others prosecuted under special statutes, in which appeals under the general provisions of the Civil Code were permitted, the action was commenced in a court or tribunal that had judicial powers, by filing a complaint or petition against adversary parties, on which issues were submitted to the court for decision.
No authorities have been cited, and we know of none, which support appellant in his contention that the Civil Code gives a right of appeal from the circuit court to the Supreme Court in a matter which reached the circuit court by appeal from the summary action or decision of a board or officer exercising a special, limited jurisdiction in a special proceeding under a statute providing for an appeal to the circuit court, without $ny provision that pleadings be filed or issues formed, or
' The mere fact that some one or more of the circuit courts of the state might decide erroneously in applying the law to the facts of a matter before them does not make the taxing act unconstitutional for , failing to authorize an appeal from that court to the Supreme Court. Judges of the circuit courts are required to decide according to law; and while they may sometimes make mistakes, the Supreme Court also sometimes commits an error.in the application of a rule of law in one case, which it may correct when deciding another. A person who has been given one judicial hearing before a court having jurisdiction has no constitutional right to appeal his case to another court; his right of appeal being no greater than is given by statute. Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Watkins (1902), 157 Ind. 600, 607, 62 N. E. 443; Deane v. Indiana Macadam, etc., Co. (1903), 161 Ind. 371, 375, 376, 68 N. E. 686; Collins v. Laybold (1914), 182 Ind. 126, 133, 104 N. E. 971.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing is overruled.
