155 Wis. 493 | Wis. | 1914
Two preliminary objections are urged wbicb will be briefly considered. It is said (1) that tbe bank cannot maintain this action because of lack of substantial interest in tbe controversy, and (2) that tbe assessment cannot be questioned because the stockholders of tbe bank did not appear before the board and submit themselves to examination. We regard these objections as not well taken.
It is true that tbe assessment of bank stock is made
It' does not appear in the present case whether the bank proposes to exercise the option given to it in the section last cited, although the inference would seem to be strong that it does; but however this may be, it has the undoubted right to do so, and in view of that legal right the question whether the bank suffers any special and direct injury by an illegal increase of taxation upon its shares of stock is to be considered. It is clear that in one sense any substantial increase of taxation on the shares of an incorporated bank is an injury to the corporation itself as well as to the separate interests of the stockholders. Every corporation is directly interested
The considerations just stated go far to answer thensecond objection. If the bank be directly interested in the action of the board, it would follow logically, if not necessarily, that in the absence of some express statute to the contrary, it ought to have the right to review that action on certiorari. But it is said that the provisions of sec. 1061, Stats. 1911, prevent any review of the board’s action in the present case. This section, after providing for the review of the assessor’s roll by the board of review and for the appearance before the board of any person dissatisfied with the assessor’s valuation, provides in substance that no person shall in any action be allowed to question the valuation of personal property assessed to him unless in person or by agent he shall have first presented his objections before the board and presented evidence in support thereof, and made full disclosure under oath of all his personal property liable to assessment in the district. The claim is that, as the stockholders have not appeared before the board, the assessment is not now open to question. A sufficient answer to this contention is that the bank must logically be considered as the agent of the stockholder so far as the assessment of bank stock is concerned, and that the officers of the bank appeared and submitted themselves to examination.
As to the merit's of the controversy, we think that the judgment of the trial court was clearly right. Sec. 1057, Stats. 1911, provides that “If the building in which such bank maintains its offices and transacts its business be owned by such bank, the assessed value thereof, including the land on which it is located, if owned by such bank, shall be deducted from the total value of such ^shares.” Sec. 1057c provides that the taxation of the shares of stock shall be in lieu of all taxes upon “the capital, surplus, property and assets . . . except that no real estate owned by-any bank ... or constituting the whole or any part of its capital, surplus or assets shall be exempt from taxation.”
The object of the provision in sec. 1057 providing for the deduction of the value of the bank’s banking house and site, if owned by it, from the gross valuation of the shares of stock is not to exempt the real estate from taxation, but simply to avoid double taxation. The banking house and sitéis taxed as real estate, but it_is a part of the assets of the bank and so. enhances to that, extent the value of the bank stock, and thus would be taxed again 'in the taxation of the stock if it were not for this provision. Such a statute calls for fair and just rather than restricted construction. While the statute refers to '‘the building,” it is very plain that' the idea was that the real estate which the bank owned and was utilizing to carry on its business was not to
The same considerations are practically decisive upon the second contention made by the appellant, namely, the contention that because the bank was rebuilding its main banking house and temporarily occupying rented quarters during the work of rebuilding it did not maintain its office and transact its business there within the meaning of the statu.;e. The mere temporary interruption in the active use of >ae building for banking purposes, caused by the making of necessary repairs or enlargements to meet the demands of the business, should not in reason be held to make any (difference in its legal status under the statute in question. homestead remains a homestead notwithstanding a removal therefrom by the owner if the removal be for a temporary purpose merely, with intention to re-occupy. Bartle v. Bartle, 132 Wis. 392, 112 N. W. 471. The situation here is quite analogous. Other analogous situations might be referred to, but it docs not seem necessary. Construing the law fairly and reasonably according to its manifest intent, we find no difficulty in concluding that the value of the main banking house and the land on which it stands should have been deducted from the gross valuation of the shares of stock-
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.