Sanford v. Dick
Sanford v. Dick
Opinion of the Court
Several exceptions to the opinions of the judge at the trial, and suggested on this motion, have, very properly, been abandoned here.
The objections now relied upon, we will consider: 1. That the rate-bill under which the defendants justify, is void, because it does not appear upon that, on what list of rateable estate the tax in question was laid. We think it does so appear, with all reasonable and convenient certainty. The committee certify, that they have made out the taxes or rate-bill for the specified purposes and amount, as directed by the district., at its meetings on the 3rd day of October, 1839, and 25th day of August, 1840. By referring to the records of these meetings, open as well to the inspection of this plaintiff, as to all others, it is made certain on what list the tax was laid, viz., the assessment list last perfected. This proceeding was legal.
2. It is objected, that no legal notice was given of the time and place of the meeting of the assessors and society’s committee, to perform the duties of a board of relief, as provided by the 10th section of the statute of 1839, entitled, “An Act concerning Schools as the only notice given, was, by the district committee, and not by the committee of the school society. We are of opinion, that this was a legal notice. By the section of the law referred to, it is enacted, that the district committee shall give notice of the assessment proposed to be made, and, at the end of fifteen days after the assessment has been made and lodged with the town-clerk, “said assessors and society’s committee shall meet in such place in said district as said committee shall designate in their notice?' &c. This language is somewhat equivocal; but it seems to refer to a notice before provided for, or to a board or person before empowered to give notice. The only notice provided for, in the former part of the section, is to be given by the district committee, and no other board is directed to give any notice.
3. That the assessors have exercised a power not given to them by law ; that by virtue of the 10th section of the statute before mentioned, the assessors are only empowered to act, in case the real estate of any person is so assessed and entered in the grand list in common with other estate, that no distinct and separate value has been put, by the assessors, upon the estate within the limits of the school district, to distinguish it from that situated out of it; and that in this case, the plaintiff owned six acres of land lying without the district, and a house and house-lot of two acres within it; and that the assessors have illegally added two acres, parcel of the six acres, to his list within the district, and assessed it; and that this tax has been laid upon it.
The facts in the case are, that the plaintiff owned several buildings and two acres of land within the limits of the school district, and six acres beyond them. He made up his own list as the law required of him, and gave it to the assessors of the town, in which he put down his houses, but said nothing of any house-lot, or of any other land than six acres. When the assessors were called out, by the district, and were required, by law, to distinguish between the property of the plaintiff lying within the district and that, lying out of it, for the purpose of district taxation, they found the two acres of land lying within the district, which the plaintiff calls his house-
It no where appears that the assessors, in their original assessment of the plaintiff’s property, knew of this two acres, or that they considered them at all, in their valuation of the dwelling-house. For the reasons before suggested, we presume they did not. If so, the plaintiff has not been injured, by the last assessment. But if he has been, it is the result either of his own negligence, or of his fraud. He cannot now take advantage of his own wrong.
There were some other exceptions taken to the validity of the rate-bill, and the proceedings of the board of relief; such as that the list, upon which this rate-bill was made, included land of Daniel Conolly, which lay entirely without the district; and because the real estate of James Nichols was set in said list at a less rate than 3 per cent; and that land was improperly added to the list of John Sanford, &c.
These objections all proceed upon the ground, that although the legal officers engaged in the levying of taxes, confine themselves within the limits of their jurisdiction; yet the taxes laid are all void, if omissions or mistakes have intervened in the course of their proceedings. This principle is inadmissible, and if recognized, would make void all the taxes in the state. If Conolly and Sanford were, for any cause, assessed too much, the law had provided for them a remedy, by an
If the proceedings were not void, neither of the defendants were trespassers.
We do not, therefore, advise a new trial.
New trial not to be granted.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Sanford against Dick and others
- Status
- Published