Eureka District Gold Mining Co. v. Ferry County
Eureka District Gold Mining Co. v. Ferry County
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court- was delivered by
— This action was brought to restrain the county of Ferry and the treasurer thereof from collecting a certain tax levied for the year 1899, which is alleged to be excessive. It is also alleged that the method of as
It is urged that the description of the property assessed, as it appears upon the tax rolls, is too vague and uncertain to identify appellant’s property, and is therefore not sufficient for the purpose of taxation. The valuation under the assessment was made as of the 1st day of March, 1899, and the appellant, in its complaint, alleges that on that date it was the owner of the possessory right to- certain mining claims designated as follows: “Mud Lake,” “Mammoth,” “Little Cove,” “Knob Hill,” and “Gold Hollar,” making, as it alleges, “a- consolidated claim located upon unsurveved public land ... in Ferry county, state of Washington.” It is also alleged that- in September, 1899, appellant received from the Hnited States a patent conveying to- it title in fee to- said claims and the ground covered thereby. It thus appears from appellant’s own allegation that it treated the claims as a consolidated group, and procured its patent for them as such. The court found that the assessor listed the prop
“In listing the land it must be described with particularity sufficient to afford the owner the means of identification, and not to mislead him.” Cooley, Taxation (2d ed.), p. 404.
See, also, Jenkins v. McTigue, 22 Fed. 148. We think this description comes within the above rule.
We do not understand appellant to complain that the several claims so grouped were not separately valued as such. There is no evidence that any such request or demand was made of the board of equalization before whom appellant, by its representative, appeared. Complaint is made that, the lands, improvements, and personal property were not separately valued, but we understand that this objection is intended to reach merely the question -whether a segregation of the classes of property should have been made, and that it is not intended to apply to what may be claimed to be separate parcels of real estate. But, in any event, if the latter is intended, this court has refused to declare an assessment void where farm lands belonging to one person had been assessed in a body and the parcels not separately valued. Pacific County ex rel. Lockwood v. Ellis, 12 Wash. 108, 111 (40 Pac. 632). It had been previously held in Lockwood v. Roys, 11 Wash. 691 (40 Pac. 346), that an assessment of a number of platted lots, many of which were not contigirous, was void because they had been assessed as a whole, and not separately valued. But in Pacific County v. ELlis, supra, it was held
“But in the case of unimproved lands the general understanding appears to he that an assessment as one parcel of that which was purchased by the owner as such is sufficient, though by the government survey it was subdivided, for the purpose of being offered for sale-, into several parcels, each of which might have been sold separately. Thus, an assessment of the whole south half of a section has been held good, though it contained four distinct eighty-acre lots.” Cooley, Taxation (2d ed.), 402; citing cases.
Section 1699, Bal. Code, provides that the assessor shall list all property according to the largest legal subdivision, as near as practicable; and that, when several tracts shall be owned by one person or corporation, he shall group such tracts as far as practicable; but that the hoard of county commissioners may, by order, direct that the property be listed numerically according to the smallest platted or government subdivision, in which cast1 the separate value of each subdivision shall be carried out on the list. It does not appear that the county commissioners of Ferry county made such an order, and, as far as appears, the assessor listed the property, not only according to the largest, but also according to' the only legal subdivision known under a government survey of this property.
Referring now to the objection that the lands, improvements, and personal property should have been valued separately, we1 find that, by stipulation evidence was taken at one time, to be used as far as applicable in this case, and also in another against the same defendants, who are respondents here. The other case involved questions similar to those presented here. The 'evidence thus taken
It is next urged that the improvements should have been valued separately from the land. The principal improvements consisted of tunnels running through the land for mining purposes. Manifestly, from the nature of
“In valuing any real property on which there is a coal or other mine, or stone or other quarry, the same shall be valued at such a price as such property, including the mine or quarry, would sell at a fair, voluntary sale for cash.”
Other improvements consisted of buildings upon the lands for rise in connection with the operation of the mine, and we think a reasonable construction of the statutory language above quoted makes such buildings a part of the mining property, and that it is all to he valued as a whole. It is urged that such a construction will make the statute in violation of §§ 2 and 3 of article 1 of the constitution of Washington. Section 2 provides for a -uniform and equal rate of taxation on all property in the state according to its value-. Section 3 provides that the legislature shall, as near as may he, provide the same methods for assessing corporate property as are provided for assessing individual property. We are unable to see that the above statutory provision conflicts with the said -constitutional provisions. It certainly does not undertake to prevent a uniform rate from being applied to mining property as well as to all other property, and it provides no> different method for assessing mining property belonging to- a corporation from that employed in assessing the same class of property belonging to individuals. It provides a uniform method for assessing the same class of property throughout the state, and it is to be subjected to the same rate of taxation as all other property. The mere fact that improvements upon other real, property may he listed and valued separately does not prevent the
It is next urged that the method used by the assessor in fixing- the valuation ivas fatally wrong. It is insisted that in fixing the value upon this property he ascertained the selling price of the capital stock of appellant company as of March 1, 1899, and valued the whole capital stock from the selling price per share, and then adopted one-fifth of such aggregate sum as the value of the mining property. There is evidence to the effect- that such calculations and estimates were made, but the assessor himself testified that he valued the property after having gone upon it and looked at it, and that he placed such value upon it as, in his judgment, was its real worth. It is immaterial what calculations or estimates he may have made, or by what process of reasoning he arrived at his
It is also urged against the validity of this assessment that the assessor omitted from the assessment rolls about 3,000 mining claims in Herry county. It sufficiently appears that these must have been mining prospects, to
We think the court below committed no error, and the judgment is affirmed.
Beavis, C. J., and Dullerton, Mount, White, Anders and Dunbar, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Eureka District Gold Mining Company v. Ferry County
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- 5 cases
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- MINES AND MINERALS • — • TAXATION DESCRIPTION 03T PROPERTY. A description of mining property upon the assessment list for taxation as “Eureka District Gold Mining Company, Survey 420,” cannot be regarded as too vague and uncertain for purposes of identification, where that is the description contained in the patent subsequently issued for the property, which was a group of several mining claims, but treated by its owners as a consolidated claim. SAME-ACTION TO ENJOIN TAX- — PLEADING. An allegation in the answer of defendants not denied in plaintiff’s reply, that the description of mining property employed by the assessor was the same as that contained in the patent therefor, taken in connection with evidence that the assessor procured from the land office a list of all claims for which receipt had issued and. used such description in listing plaintiff’s property, is sufficient to establish the finding that the description corresponds to that in the United States patent for the property, although patent'therefor was not in fact issued until some six months subsequent to the date of assessment. SAME. The term “Eureka District Gold Mining Company Survey” is sufficient to identify property as being the subject of a government mineral survey, when that description was applied to the survey of record in the land office and afterwards inserted in the patent, which conveyed a number of claims'as having been grouped under one survey. SAME-METHOD OP ASSESSMENT. Under Bal. Code, § 1699, which provides that the assessor shall list all property according to the largest legal subdivision, as near as practicable, unless otherwise ordered by the board of county commissioners, it was not error to list a group of mining claims as a consolidated claim, according to the government description, when no order had been made by said board directing the property to be listed by smaller legal subdivisions. SAME-SEGREGATION OP REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. Where the owner of mining property, when before the board of equalization, made no demand for a segregation of the personal property from the real estate assessment, it cannot subsequently, in an action to enjoin the collection of the tax, be heard to say that a substantial right affecting the validity of the tax had been invaded. SAME- — -INCLUSION OP IMPROVEMENTS IN VALUATION OP REALTY. Under Bal. Code, § 1698, which provides that “in valuing any real property on which there is a coal or other mine, or stone or other quarry, the same shall be valued at such a price as such property, including the mine • or quarry, would sell at a fair, voluntary sale for cash,” it was proper for the assessor to value as part of the real estate of mining property improvements thereon consisting of tunnels running through the land for mining purposes and buildings upon the land for use in connection with the operation of the mine. SAME-REQUIREMENTS OF CONSTITUTION. Such provision is not a violation of art. 7, §§ 2, 3, of the constitution, which require uniformity in the rate of taxation, and that the same methods shall be employed for assessing corporate property as are provided for assessing individual property. SAME-UNIFORM TAXATION. The fact that Bal. Code, § 1698, makes the rule for valuing mining property at the price which it would bring at “a fair, voluntary sale for cash,” while the rule for other property is stated to be the “value at which the property would be taken in payment of a just debt from a solvent debtor,” would not violate the constitutional requirement (art. 7, §2) of uniformity in the rate of taxation on all property according to its value. SAME — -ASSESSOR’S METHOD OF COMPUTING VALUATION. ¡The method employed by the assessor in getting at the valuation of mining property fixed by him in his assessment is immaterial, if in fact the conclusion arrived at was the result of his honest judgment as to its value, considered with reference to the property itself, after an examination thereof. SAME-PROPERTY OMITTED FROM ASSESSMENT-EFFECT. The omission by the assessor of about 3,000 mining claims in the county from his assessment, would not invalidate his assessment of other mining property, even if such omission arose from a misapprehension of the law or from a mistake of fact.