48 La. Ann. 1350 | La. | 1896
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Relator in its petition to the District Court represented that it was the owner of an oil mill in the parish of Concordia. That the police jury for that parish convened at the court house on the first Monday in July, 1895, for the purpose of reviewing the assessment or listing of all the taxable property and effects for the year 1895, and that said jury while sitting as a Board of Reviewers for said parish at the said session valued said mill and appur
That it was absolutely necessary for the protection of relator’s rights that said assessor and the sheriff of the parish (ex officio tax collector) be ruled to show cause why said assessment or valuation of said mill should not be placed upon the tax rolls for said parish at the sum of ten thousand dollars, and that a writ of mandamus issue directed to them commanding them to place the assessment of said mill upon the tax rolls for the year 1895 at ten thousand dollars. Relator therefore prayed that said assessor and sheriff be notified, and that an order be granted ordering said officers to show cause at chambers why a peremptory writ of mandamus should not issue commanding said officers to put the valuation of said mill upon the tax rolls of said parish for the year 1895 at the sum of ten thousand dollars, and that this be the amount upon which taxation shall be based for that year; that after due proceedings there be judgment ordering them so to do, and declaring that said valuation should be .the basis for taxation for the year 1895, and that a peremptory writ of mandamus issue commanding them to comply with said judgment. Defendants were ordered to show cause as prayed for.
The defendant’s excepted that plaintiff’s petition disclosed no cause of action and no legal right against them for a peremptory mandamus. This exception having been overruled, they answered, pleading the general issue. Oampbell admitted he was the assessor of the parish, and averred that in pursuance of his duty as such and in compliance with the law and within the time specified by law, he listed the property of relator and affixed a valuation, as was his duty, thereon of seventy-five thousand dollars. That said valuation
Relator filed a motion to strike out the answer on the ground that 'defendants having made an appearance and filed an exception could not file any subsequent pleadings, as all of the defences must be"made at one and the same time and in one pleading. In the event of the motion being overruled it averred that defendants had no legal right to question the validity of the action of the Board of Reviewers fixing the valuation of the mill at ten thousand dollars, nor had they any legal power to raise the question as to the right of the board to fix said assessment, as the action of the board is final-against the defendants, the State and parish, as neither have any legal standing to raise the question set forth in the answer because the law only gives the taxpayer the right to appear in court to have the assessment passed upon by the court. That the action of the board is final and the defendants, the State and the parish, are precluded and debarred from raising any question as to said assessment.-
On the trial a“ certificate ” of the president of the police jury attested by the secretary thereof was introduced in evidence to the effect that “ on the 2d day of July, 1895, the following resolution was adopted by the police jury as a Board of Reviewers for said parish, to-wit:
“ A resolution was adopted while the jury was acting as a Board of Reviewers continuing the assessment of the Union Oil Company, Yidalia Mill, for the year 1895 at ten thousand dollars.”
A demand was made by relator on the assessor “ to make his assessment roll for the year 1895 conform to the assessment equalization and valuation made by the police jury sitting as a Board of Reviewers at its regular meeting in July, 1895, as to the assessment of the Union Oil Mill Company’s Yidalia Mill, to-wit: ten thousand dollars.”
The ownership by relator of the mill in question was admitted, and the refusal of the assessor to comply with the demand on’him shown. The assessment of the property by the assessor fixing 'the valuation of the property at seventy-five thousand dollars was offered in evidence. Campbell the assessor as a witness testified that he had made an assessment of the Union Mill in 1895, fifteen or twenty days prior to the meeting of the police jury. The Union Mill Company made out a duplicate list, but not sworn to. This list was made only a short time prior to the meeting of the jury, and was submitted to the jury — the amount of the other duplicate list was ten thousand dollars. The assessment lists are not always sworn to. The Union Mill Company opposed the assessment which he made. We find in the record a bill of exception by the defendants in which it is recited that the assessor being on the stand as a witness, defendants offered to prove that the police jury sitting as a Board of Reviewers, did not have any evidence before them as to the actual cash value of plaintiff’s property; that there was no contest before them on the part of the oil mill of the valuation placed upon said property by the assessor; that the assessor was not heard in reference to the correctness of his valuation of said property; that the action of said board in placing the valuation of said property at ten thousand dollars for the purpose of taxation was had without any reference
That these objections were sustained and the evidence not permitted to be received. The District Court made the mandamus peremptory, decreeing that the valuation of ten. thousand dollars placed upon the property by the Board of Reviewers should be taken as the value of the property for the purposes of taxation for the year 1895 and that defendants pay costs.
Defendants appealed.
Relator’s claim, that the defendantshaving filed an exception that on the face of the papers relator showed no cause of action, they were forcedly debarred from setting up any ground of defence on the merits, is not tenable. The only matter which would be involved in that question would be one of delay. It was within the power of relator through the court to prevent any improper advantage being taken by filing the exception separately from the answer. This matter rests greatly in the discretion of the court. The court properly exercised its discretion in this case.
The exceptions filed in Shaw vs. Howell, 18 An. 195, were dilatory exceptions as to form, and the court must have been of the opinion that they had been presented for purposes of delay.
Relator denies the right of the assessor to raise the issues he has attempted to raise through his answer. Having been brought into court upon a rule to show cause invoked by the relator itself, defendant necessarily had the right to be heard (Rouge vs. Lafargue Co., Limited, 47 An. 1649). As a matter of course the issues which he tendered in defence were subject to legal test as to whether they were such as he could legally raise (State ex rel. Morris vs. Secretary, 43 An. 680-681). The District Court, in acting upon the motion to strike out the answer, correctly ruled that the assessor was not authorized, in this proceeding, to question the action of the Board of Reviewers in respect to the correctness of the conclusion of face which they have reached touching the value of the relator’s property, assuming that that matter was before the board under such con
The 22d and 23d sections of Act No. 106 of 1890 are as follows:
Section 22. “The police juries of the several parishes (parish of Orleans excepted) throughout the State are hereby appointed and constituted Boards of Reviewers for their parishes.
Sec. 23. “ The Board of Reviewers shall meet on the first Monday of July of each and every year or as soon thereafter as possible, and the several assessors throughout the State, parish of Orleans excepted, shall lay before the said board all of said lists of property with the estimated (actual) cash value thereof extended and listed and valued by said assessors as aforesaid, together with the lists and valuation made, under oath as aforesaid of those property holders
In State ex rel. Johnson vs. Tax Collector, 39 An. 538, this court quoted approvingly Shattuck & Hoffman vs. City of New Orleans, in which it was said : “ The right of the taxpayer to appear’before the standing committee of the City Council and be heard concerning the description of property listed and valuation of same as assessed, and the report of the standing committee on assessments of the City Council, are proceedings preparatory and prerequisite to the taxpayers’ right of action to test the correctness of the assessment in the courts of justice,” adding, “ that the same rule must be applied to the revision and correction of assessments in the country parishes.”
In the same decision we referred to the powers of the Board of Reviewers as being quasi-judicialjin character, and referred to the necessity of their being exercised in the manner indicated by law, or in some similar manner.
Relator’s position seems to be that the police jury, acting as a Board of Reviewers, are not called on to have before them testimony of any kind to show incorrectness in the assessments made by the local assessor, but that it was authorized to take notice of themselves of what they might conceive to be error therein and deal with it upon “ quasi-judicial notice ” or knowledge of the subject of some one or more members of the board. That the provisions of the law relative to taking testimony or making an investigation of the facts of the cases, were merely permissive. We do not so understand the law. We are of the opinion that in the matter of the correction of the assessment of individual citizens or corporations, the board is authorized to take action only upon a special opposition made by the party alleging himself to be aggrieved, and that a sworn declaration made by him, such as is called for in Sec. 19 of the act is required as essentially necessary for the purposes of such a contest before'the board. We are of the opinion that it is no part of the duty of Boards of Reviewers to vindicate the wrongs, either actual' or supposed, of individuals, and take any more interest in their af
Relator calls our attention to Insurance Company vs. Board of Assessors, 40 An. 372, in which this court declared that the failure by a taxpayer to have complied with the legal requirement of making out a sworn duplicate list of his property was not a peremptory bar to relief. The question was raised under different conditions from those in which it is raised here. In that case the objection was urged at the threshold of a judicial investigation in a court of justice where the question of the correctness of the assessor’s valuation was the precise issue about to be made, and during which, we assume, the claims of the party aggrieved would be required to be supported on the stand by his oath as a witness. In the present matter the question comes before us as an objection raised after what is claimed to be final action by the Board of Reviewers, in order to show that this duplicate list, which was the only basis upon which the board could have acted, was not before it, and, therefore, its action was substantially original and ex parte. We take occasion to say the course which the declaration made in the case referred to, announced as being permissible, does not meet with the approval of the court as presently constituted.
We do not understand that the lawmaker intended to invest in a small number of citizens, no matter how worthy they may be, the power of determining of themselves, and for themselves, without rule, check or limit, the rights either of their fellow-citizens or those of the State and parishes. The law contemplates a hearing of both sides, an examination and investigation as a condition to action. We had occasion to express our views on this subject in the matter of the Gaslight Company vs. City of New Orleans, 46 An. 1146, though it was brought to our notice under different sections of the act of 1890 — sections having reference to the Board of Reviewers in the city of New Orleans. The principles lying behind the powers of .the city board and those of parish boards are alike. The interests of the State and the country parishes are entitled to be protected as fully as those of New Orleans.
We are of the opinion that when the assessor raised an issue in this case, which he had the right to raise, that matters were not before the Board of Assessors of Concordia parish, under conditions such as to authorize or justify them in taking action in the matter of relator’s property; that relator had imposed upon it the burden of showing affirmatively that the board was acting inside of its statutory power, or as it is frequently termed, its statutory jurisdiction. Relator has not done so.
We are not satisfied from the record of the actual state of the facts of the case. We think the court should not have excluded the
It is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment appealed from be and the same is hereby annulled, avoided and reversed; and, it is ordered that the cause be remanded to the District Oourt, and there reinstated and tried, and that, on the trial the testimony offered by defendants on the first trial, and rejected, be received.