Anderson v. Ingersoll

Mississippi Supreme Court
Anderson v. Ingersoll, 62 Miss. 73 (Miss. 1884)
Cooper

Anderson v. Ingersoll

Opinion of the Court

Cooper, J.,

If the appellee was aggrieved by the action of the board of supervisors in increasing the assessment of his property he should have appealed to the circuit court, as he was permitted to do by *75§ 504 of the Code of 1880. The board had jurisdiction of the matter on which its action was taken, and any error committed in its exercise was correctible by appeal; the appellee, having failed to avail himself of the remedy provided by the statute, cannot invoke the aid of the chancery court. Johnson v. Bond, MS. opinion, Book L, 278.

Section 507 of the code authorizes the boards of supervisors in the various counties to increase or reduce the assessment of the property of individuals in the states of case therein enumerated, but this does not include the power of reducing or increasing the assessment of all the property in the county or of all the lands in the county on the application of taxpayers generally; action, when taken, must be confined to the increase or reduction in reference to individual assessments as distinguished from those of the county at large.

The order made by the board at its November term reducing the valuation of all lands in the county twenty per cent, was without authority of law and void.

The complainant has shown no grounds for relief, and his bill should have been dismissed.

The decree is reversed and cause remanded.

Reference

Full Case Name
F. W. Anderson, Tax Collector v. W. K. Ingersoll
Cited By
6 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
1. Tax Assessment. Action of supervisors. Remedy of aggrieved taxpayer. The remedy of a taxpayer aggrieved by the action of a board of supervisors in increasing the assessment of his property is by an appeal to the circuit court under $ 504 of the Code of 1880, and failing to pursue this course, he cannot obtain relief in a court of chancery. 2. Same. Reduction by supervisors. Section 507, Code 1880, construed. Section 507 of the Code of 1880 provides that “in case of the destruction or deterioration in value of any real estate by any casualty, or in case of over-assessment, known to be such, the board of supervisors shall have power, at any time, on application of a party interested or otherwise, to reduce the assessment to the value of the property.” A board of supervisors has no power, under this statute, to reduce, in solido, the assessment of all, or of a . particular class, of the lands of the county. The power which it confers is confined to individual assessments.