109 P.2d 610 | Ariz. | 1941
This is an appeal by Southern Pacific Company, a corporation, hereinafter called plaintiff, from a judgment against it in an action which it had brought against Gila county. The City of Globe, a municipal corporation, and the Town of Miami, a municipal corporation, were brought in as defendants by order of the court. The facts in the case are not in dispute, and may be stated as follows:
Three separate suits were filed by plaintiff against Gila County for the purpose of recovering taxes paid under protest to the county for the benefit of the City of Globe and the Town of Miami, being numbered 7775-B, 7783-B and 7894-B, in the lower court. The first was to recover taxes alleged to have been paid for the years 1934, '35 and '36. The other two were to recover taxes paid for the year 1937. The complaint is based upon the theory that the tax rate levied by the City of Globe and the Town of Miami for each and all of these years exceeded the maximum authorized by law. This claim is based upon the provisions of section
"Council may levy certain taxes. The common council shall have power to levy and collect annually, upon the assessed value of the real and personal property within the town, as shown by the equalized assessment roll of the current year, except such as is, or may be, exempt from taxation under the laws of the state, in each year, the following taxes: Not exceeding four (4) mills on the dollar of such assessed valuation to defray the salaries of officers, and the ordinary and contingent expenses of the corporation, not herein otherwise provided for; not exceeding twelve (12) mills on the dollar of such assessed valuation, for the purpose of constructing and repairing streets, sewers, sidewalks and crosswalks, or bridges and culverts, upon such streets and sidewalks; not exceeding four (4) mills on the dollar of such assessed valuation, to defray the interest of the public debt of the town." *502
[1] It is not disputed that the maximum rate fixed by this section was exceeded for each year for which the taxes paid are sought to be recovered by plaintiff, and that if said section was in force at the time of the levy of the taxes, plaintiff is entitled to recover the excess. It is urged, however, by defendants that this section was not in force at the time of the imposition and collection of the taxes aforesaid, for the reason that it previously had been repealed. It is admitted by both parties that the legislature had never expressly repealed it, but defendants claim it had been repealed by implication. It is not disputed by plaintiff that a statute may be repealed by implication, as well as by direct language, in a subsequent act of the legislature, and that such repeals do frequently occur, but it is also urged, as we have said in Rowland v. McBride,
"It should also be borne in mind that `repeals by implication are not favored, and will not be indulged, if there is any other reasonable construction.'"
[2, 3] When the question of repeal by implication arises, if the later statute and the former can be construed so that both will be operative, it is the duty of the court to give them such a construction. Biles v. Robey,
[4-8] Section
Can the governing bodies of the municipalities comply with both section
It is urged that since the legislature, in section 73-502, Arizona Code of 1939, permitted an increase of 10 per cent. in the amount of taxes levied in each succeeding year, it must be assumed that it intended thereby to supersede
[11] We appreciate that the law will work a hardship upon the municipalities whose valuations were greatly reduced during the depression and which did not attempt to cut their expenses in accordance therewith, but the remedy is legislative and not judicial. If the legislature desires to remove the limitation of section
[12] The City of Globe or Town of Miami, were not necessary parties. Maricopa County v. Hodgin,
There are other matters raised by the briefs, but they are in effect determined by what we have already said, and need not be discussed.
Since, as we have shown, the legislature re-enacted all of the various provisions of the law to which we have referred as a part of the Code of 1928, and since they can all be construed and operated in such a manner as to be consistent with each other, and since it is admitted that the limitations laid down in section
McALISTER and ROSS, JJ., concur. *508