52 S.C. 181 | S.C. | 1898
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
The plaintiff, being the owner of a lot in the town of Moultrieville, in this State, and having been assessed by the defendant to pay a tax of $8 for each of the last two years, 1895 and 1896, and an execution to collect the same having been issued by said town, complainant alleges that such execution casts a cloud upon his title, is illegal for not being assessed according to value, and seeks an injunction against the said town in its attempt now or hereafter to collect the same. The defendant, for answer, alleged that by its charter it was empowered by the General Assembty to levy such tax, and by an amendment to its charter in January, 1895, to issue an execution for the collection of the same. That such acts are constitutional, and that the Circuit Court has no power to enjoin the collection of such taxes, but that the plaintiff’s sole remedy was to pay the tax under protest, and then bring his action for the recovery of the same.
The cause came on to be heard before Judge Townsend, and on the 9th April, 1897, he filed his decree, wherein he held that the tax "in question was not an assessment on property, but an assessment against the owner of a lot for road duty, which assessment is not fixed by value of the property (lot) owned; the tax is to preserve the road leading to the lot of plaintiff; the act empowering this tax allows the owner of the lot to pay the tax or to work it out, just as other road laws provide. He, therefore, held the acts in question constitutional, and dismissed the complaint.
The plaintiff now appeals on the following exception: “That the Court erred in holding that the assessment was not on property, but on the owner thereof, and was not a tax in violation of the Constitution. We will now pass upon the appeal. The act of the General Assembly passed in 1876 (16 vol. of Stat. at Large, 152 and 153), in its preamble, recites: “Whereas, the lands of Sullivan’s Island have been set apart for such citizens of this State as may resort thereto for the purposes of health, and to this end have been placed under the regulation of the town council
It is the judgment of this Court, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.