100 P. 774 | Ariz. | 1909
This suit was brought by the United Globe Mines, a corporation, against Gila county and W. W. Brook-ner, as tax collector of said county, to enjoin the collection
The judgment of the trial court having granted plaintiff the relief demanded in its complaint as to the, unpaid taxes levied upon its patented mines for county and school purposes, the appeal presents the one question whether the show-' ing made by the complaint was sufficient to establish plaintiff’s right to an injunction restraining the collection of the unpaid taxes upon plaintiff’s patented mines levied for territorial purposes. The contention of counsel for appellant is that the showing made by the complaint establishes the invalidity of the order of the board of equalization in increasing the valuation' of patented mines in Gila county, first, because the territorial board of equalization must find the proper scale of valuation from the assessment-rolls of the various counties and not from abstracts made therefrom; and, second, but, even admitting that the territorial board of equalization may use the abstracts for that purpose, the abstracts in question not having been made in accordance with the law, and being false and defective in the particulars pointed out in the complaint, the action of the board based upon such abstracts was illegal and void. Upon the first ground thus relied upon as establishing the invalidity of the order of the board of equalization, counsel for appellant cite our decisions in Copper Queen C. M. Co. v. Territorial Board of Equalization, 9 Ariz. 383, 84 Pac. 511, and Territory v. Board of Supervisors, 9 Ariz. 405, 84 Pac. 519. In the former case we decided that the territorial board of equalization, for the purpose of producing a just relation among the valuations of property in the territory, so far as regards the territorial tax, has the power to increase or diminish the valuation of property in any county by classes, and that the board of equalization in aid of its jurisdiction may require all the boards of supervisors of the various counties to make out and return abstracts of the assessment-rolls showing the. assessments of the various kinds of property by classes, and may require a return of patented mines as a distinct class, or any
We find no warrant in the statutes for the position taken that the abstracts thus furnished under the order of the territorial board of equalization may not be used by the board as a basis for any order it may make in the way of equaliz-. ing the taxes among. the various counties of the territory. Since we have held in Territory v. Board of Supervisors that the territorial board of equalization has no power or authority to change individual assessments, but its power and authority is limited to the determination of the scale of valuation to be adopted in order to harmonize and equalize assessments theretofore made, we see no reason why the abstracts may •not, in most instances, furnish the information needed for that purpose. It is true we used the language,.“The board must find the proper scale of valuation from the assessment-rolls of the various counties, ’ ’ but, when we consider the context, it will appear that we did not intend therein to declare that the abstracts properly made and furnished may not be taken by the board and used by the board as evidence of what the assessment-rolls may contain. If the abstracts of the assessment-rolls are not to be used by the territorial board of equalization as evidence of what the assessment-rolls contain, there can be no purpose in requiring the boards of supervisors to make out and return such abstracts. If the abstracts may be thus used, we are unable to see how they are open to attack as not being returned in accordance with any order of the territorial board of equalization or for the reason of their being erroneous or false in any particular. While the action of the board may undoubtedly be subject to review in a suit brought to enforce a tax or to restrain the collection of a tax based thereon, the court may only inquire into such action fur the purpose of ascertaining whether the territorial board of equalization had jurisdiction to make the order, or to determine, when the issue be raised, whether the board of equalization acted in bad faith or so arbitrarily as to amount to constructive fraud in adopting its scale of valuation. If the method adopted by the board be that which the statute directs, and it does not appear that the board acted thus arbitrarily or fraudulently, we may not inquire into the question whether the evidence which was before the board was suffi
We think the trial court was right in holding that the complaint did not show facts which would establish the invalidity of the order of the territorial board of equalization equalizing the taxation of the patented mines in the territory for the year 1906; and for that reason the judgment is affirmed.