Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Co. v. Town of Wolf River
Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Co. v. Town of Wolf River
Opinion of the Court
It was contended by respondents in the court below, and again here, that the complaint on its face failed to show the filing of a proper claim with the town board, a condition precedent to any such relief as here asked; and th^Lt the language quoted above, alleging that the additional reassessment, amounting to' over $31,000, was made by defendant Tax Commission “without there being any evidence before it on which to base any additional assessment,” was a mere conclusion of the pleader rather than a pleading of a fact, and that in any event it is so contradicted or modified by the other language of the complaint as to make it insufficient as a basis for a claim that the Tax Commission was without jurisdictional facts upon which to support the making of such reassessment.
On the first of the above suggested grounds we can discover no language, under any reasonable construction of the statutes requiring the filing of such claim, which would require a conclusion that the claim as filed was insufficient either in form or substance, and shall therefore devote no further consideration to that point.
Respondents’ main contention is, in effect, that when the complaint alleged, as it did, that the plaintiff submitted its own audit and books and records to the Tax Commission, from which, with the competent evidence also submitted,
No more proper way has been suggested, nor can we find any, of pleading the fact of the non-existence of facts than bluntly saying so, as was done here.
An admission by a taxpayer that there were presented to the taxing body facts warranting an assessment to the amount of $5 and no more is in no sense an admission that there was possibly evidence before the taxing body to warrant an assessment of even $1 more than the said $5, and the admission in the earlier part of the complaint cannot have the effect claimed for it by respondents.
We are satisfied, therefore, that there is sufficient on the face of this complaint to require the overruling of the demurrer.
That the plaintiff is authorized to bring an action such as
By the Court. — Order reversed, and cause remanded with directions to overrule the demurrer.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company v. Town of Wolf River and another
- Status
- Published