95 Vt. 267 | Vt. | 1921
This is an action in contract for the collection of taxes assessed against the Barre City Water Works as follows:
24^ (acres) and privileges..............$42,250
1 y2 mile piping........................ 2,500
5y2 acres Robinson farm............... 400
$45,150
The case was tried by court, and at the close of all the evidence the defendant moved for judgment. The motion was overruled, and judgment was rendered for the plaintiff. To the overruling of the defendant’s motion and to the judgment rendered the defendant was allowed exceptions, and the case comes here on those exceptions. One of the principal exceptions to the judgment rendered, upon which the defendant relies, is that no tax was assessed against it in its own proper name.
The statute requires that real estate shall be set in the list to the last owner or possessor thereof on the first day of April in each year. G-. L. 697. The defendant contends that this is mandatory and must be strictly followed; while the plaintiff contends that it is simply directory, and though the statute may not be strictly followed in assessing the property in the name of
In the case at bar the defendant was aware of the fact that the assessment of the property was against it, for it had paid 'to the plaintiff the taxes so assessed on this same property for seven years, without objection or complaint that the tax was not properly assessed against it. This shows that the defendant was not deceived, misled, nor prejudiced by the use of the name in which it was assessed, and under which it had paid the taxes thus assessed against it for-so many years without protest of any kind. A mistake in the name of the party against whom the tax is assessed, not of a character to mislead or deceive, does not render the assessment void. 26 R. C. L. 358, § 315; 37 Cyc. 1005; Yellow Poplar Co. v. Thompson’s Heirs, supra; Stevenson v. Henkle, supra; 27 A. & E. Enc. (2nd ed.) 64, 672. It is only when the mistake made in a name is of such a character as to mislead the tax payer to his prejudice that it vitiates and renders the assessment void. 37 Cyc. 1005. The exception on this ground is not sustained.
The judgment accordingly is reversed and judgment for the plaintiff to recover the taxes assessed upon the Robinson farm, together with the lawful fees for collecting the same and its