91 Ky. 60 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1890
delivered the opinion oe the court.
The appellant gave the list of his property and its value to the assessor of the county in which the same was situated. The value of the property given in by the appellant and accepted by the assessor, including realty, personalty, &c., amounted to forty-six thousand sev'en hundred and forty dollars. Thereafter the county board of supervisors for said county, of their own motion, reduced the assessment that the appellant had placed upon his real estate by the sum of five thousand dollars. Thereafter the State Board of Equalization increased the assessment on real estate, including town lots, in said county, fifteen per cent., and of personal property, excluding money or evidences of debt, forty-one per cent., which sums were, in common with other like property of the county, added to the taxable value of the appellant’s property as fixed by the board of supervisors. Thereafter the appellant applied to the county court for a reduction of the assessment on his land, complaining of the increase by the Board of Equalization, and the county court did reduce said assessment by the sum of five thousand dollars. But the sheriff of the county,
The appellant’s claim of authority to thus proceed is based upon section 3, article 8, chapter 92, of the General Statutes, its punctuation being corrected so as to correspond with that of the enrolled bill. Said section, as punctuated, is as follows : “A person claiming to be improperly charged with any tax assessed after the meeting of the board of supervisors may, at any time not later than the next regular county court after he has received notice of the same by demand being made upon him to pay the tax, offer evidence in support of said complaint to the county court of the county,” &c., and if said court finds upon the evidence that said property has been asssessed at more than its fair cash value, &c., it may correct the same.
The appellant- claims that, as the enrolled bill is punctuated with a comma after the word “assessed” (see supra), it should be read and interpreted as though a comma was placed immediately after said word, which, being done, would authorize the county court to hear evidence and reduce the assessments upon all the property situated in the county, without regard to the time of assessment, although the board of supervisors had met and adjourned. In other words, the county court has jurisdiction, to correct any erroneous assessment after the meeting or action of the board of supervisors, provided the application is made
Prior to the 17th of May, 1886, the county courts assumed to exercise the revisory jurisdiction claimed, which power, in many instances, was not wisely used. But as said act, as has been construed by this court, contains all the law upon the subject of revenue and taxation, and which does not authorize the county court to revise the assessments, except in the instances mentioned, and as the county court has no revisory power in that regard, unless the same is conferred by the statute, it must be held that the Legislature, for reasons indicated, intended to and did take away the revisory power of said court in reference to said assessments, and confined’ the same to the county board of supervisors, except in the instances indicated. Besides, as has been decided by this court, the equalization of assessments among the several counties by the Board of Equalization is paramount and final, and to allow such corrections as is sought here would defeat the equalization, because, if appellant’s correction is permitted, it would increase the burden of other taxpayers of his county. If all citizens could avail themselves of the same privilege, the action of said board would be wholly defeated — a thing that we can not do by construction.
The judgment is affirmed.