240 Mass. 557 | Mass. | 1922
This is an action of contract by the collector of taxes of the city of Lowell to recover "$8,537.24, the amount of a tax . . . upon intangible personal estate . . . and $2 . . . poll tax assessed upon the defendant” for the fiscal year beginning “April 1, 1916.” St. 1909, c. 490, Part II, § 33. St. 1914, c. 198, §1. The judge found for the plaintiff and at the defendant’s request reported the case with all the material evidence, his conclusions of fact, and rulings, "for determination by the full court of the questions of law raised.”
The material contention of the defendant appears in his seventh request, “That as matter of law upon all the evidence . . . the defendant was a legal resident of the town of Dunstable, Mass., on the first day of April, 1916.” It was possible for him to have more than one home, or to be homeless if he so preferred, yet he could have only one domicil, for "Every person must have a domicil somewhere.” Abington v. North Bridgewater, 23 Pick. 170, 177. Borland v. Boston, 132 Mass. 89, 99. His domicil of origin having been in Lowell, it continued there for the exercise of political privileges and for purposes of taxation, “until both
The judge on all the evidence was warranted in finding that the defendant in 1915 had formed an intention to leave Lowell, and accompanied by his wife visited several places, none of which were found to be acceptable. But, his attention having been called to Dunstable, a town about ten or twelve miles distant from Lowell where the rate of taxation was much less, he rented on March 1, 1916, half of a house in that town, and notified the assessors that he had taken up his residence in Dunstable where he desired to be assessed and have his name placed upon the voting list. On the same day he wrote to the assessors of Lowell what had taken place, and also requested a national bank in which he was a stockholder to change his legal residence on its books from Lowell to Dunstable. Between March 10 and March 20 he was at this house twice, as well as on March 23, 24 and 25, when he stayed over night. From March 27 to April 2 or 3 he remained there nights and had his meals. His wife and daughter, who composed his family, were visiting his son engaged in business in Akron, Ohio. Mrs. Hanchett on her return about April 10 or 20, “. . . visited the Dunstable house with the defendant, and selected some wall-papers, and did some work about the house, sweeping and preparing meals.” The ceilings also were repaired, some papering and painting done in the spring of 1916, and electric lights were installed. The defendant voted in Dunstable at all elections after the annual March meeting in 1916. He was assessed and paid taxes for that year upon his personal property as well as a poll tax and participated in the municipal affairs of the town. During this period and on April 1, the defendant, a man of ample means, owned in Lowell a well furnished residence on Harvard -Street of eleven or more rooms fully equipped with all modern conveniences, which on his own evidence had been the family home before his appearance in Dunstable. A garage for two automobiles also was on the premises. The Dunstable house with an
The evidence offered by the defendant that no assessment on his personal property was levied in Lowell on April 1,1917, and on April 1, 1918, and that the assessors altered the sworn statement of the cashier of the bank as to the defendant’s residence in 1916, and sent a copy of the altered statement to the tax commissioner, was excluded rightly. The assessors were public officers and their acts cannot be deemed as in the nature of admissions binding the plaintiff or as tending to show the defendant’s intention to change his domicil or that his actual place of abode had been changed at the date of the assessment in question.
The judge’s final conclusion that “the defendant’s real home on April 1, 1916, was Lowell, and that he was accordingly domiciled there” cannot be held to have been unwarranted. Harvard College v. Gore, 5 Pick. 370, 377. The seventh request could not have
So ordered.