Arizona Eastern Railroad v. County of Graham

170 P. 792, 19 Ariz. 320, 1918 Ariz. LEXIS 84
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1918
DocketCivil No. 1542
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 170 P. 792 (Arizona Eastern Railroad v. County of Graham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arizona Eastern Railroad v. County of Graham, 170 P. 792, 19 Ariz. 320, 1918 Ariz. LEXIS 84 (Ark. 1918).

Opinions

CUNNINGHAM, J.

The plaintiff’s first cause of action is based upon the proposition that the tax levy for the common schools of the state for the fiscal- year ending June 30, 1916, was fixed by subdivision (a) of section 4 of chapter 4 of the Session Laws of the First Special Session, effective June 10, 1915, reading as follows:

“Sec.-4. There is hereby levied upon the real and personal property within the state of Arizona, for the ¡Bscal year ending June 30, 1916, the rate of taxation to be fixed by the state board of equalization at its meeting to be convened on the first Monday in August, 1915, based upon the total assessed valuation of all property in the state of Arizona for the year 1915, the following additional taxes:
“ (a) To defray the expenses of the maintenance and support of the state common schools during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916, one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars.”

The appellant contends that said statute repeals by implication paragraph 2815 of the Civil Code of Arizona of 1913, [322]*322a statute making a general levy to raise a fund of $500,000 for school purposes, and the fund so raised when collected to be known as a state common school fund; that said chapter 4 was intended by the legislature to supersede paragraph 2815 and reduce the amount of the fund to be levied for state common school purposes so that the fund’ for that purpose required to be raised for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916, was limited to $100,000. Plaintiff alleges that the state board of equalization by its order, without authority of law, required the sum of $500,000 to be raised for the state common school fund, and that in obedience to such order the board of supervisors of Graham county duly levied a rate of tax on the property within their county sufficient to raise Graham county’s portion of said fund, and that plaintiff was required to pay, and did pay under protest of such excessive levy, the sum of $1,774.45 taxes in excess of the amount it would have been required to pay had the amount of the state common school fund been fixed at $100,000, as required by said chapter 4. Defendant demurred to this cause of action, and its. demurrer was sustained.

In Callaghan v. Boyce, 17 Ariz. 433, 153 Pac. 773, we held that the veto of section 51 of chapter 3 of the First Special Session of the Second State Legislature, effectively disposed of such section of that chapter. Section 44 of the same chapter 3 as passed by the legislature made an appropriation of $100,000 for the state common school fund for the year ending June 30, 1916, and further provided that such appropriation of such sum for that purpose was made in lieu of the appropriation directed to be made in paragraph 2815 of the Civil Code of Arizona of 1913, “for the purposes and objects provided for in this section (section 44), and is not in addition thereto.” Section 51 of said chapter 3 as originally passed expressly repealed paragraph 2815. Both sections 44 and 51 were vetoed by the Governor, and in Callaghan v. Boyce, supra, we held that the said veto was effective and absolutely nullified both sections, thereby in effect holding that paragraph 2815 of the Civil Code of Arizona of 1913 was unaffected by such attempted legislation, and remained in full force and effect in its entirety. Chapter 3, supra, is the general appropriation bill. Said chapter 4 is designated as an act to provide for the levy of an annual tax for each of the years ending June 30, 1916, and June 30, 1917, for the pur[323]*323pose of paying to defray tbe expenses of tbe maintenance and support of the common schools, etc. The sums to be raised by said levying statute correspond in amounts and purposes with the provisions of the said general appropriation act, and in reference to the levy for the state common school fund the vetoed portions of the appropriation act are followed. Chapter 4 in this respect is the counterpart of chapter 3, and to all intents and purposes depends upon chapter 3. It seems that, as section 44 of chapter 3 never became a law because of the Governor’s effective veto, therefore it follows that section 4 of chapter 4, making a levy to raise a fund for the state common schools in the amount of $100,000, provided for the raising of a fund by taxation in an amount not fixed by legislative appropriation. The amount of the fund for state common school purposes, as fixed by paragraph 2815 of the Civil Code of Arizona of. 1913, a valid and subsisting law, is the sum of $500,000, and the same paragraph fixing that amount of appropriation for such purpose levies a tax to raise the said amount. Whether section 4 of chapter 4, supra, requiring a fund in the sum of $100,000 as an additional tax, authorizes the state board of equalization to levy a tax in amount sufficient to create a state common school fund of $600,000, or $100,000 in addition to the $500,000 fund required to be raised by paragraph 2815, is a matter not requiring our determination, for the reason no such levy was made and the question is not raised. I am certain that the board of equalization acted wholly within the scope of its authority, conferred by paragraph 2815 of the Civil Code of Arizona of 1913, by ordering raised by taxation a fund for state common school purposes in the amount of $500,000, and the board of supervisors of appellee county were required to raise that county’s portion of such fund, and appellant’s property was legally taxed for that purpose. No error was committed by the.court in sustaining the demurrer to this cause of action.

Plaintiff’s second cause of action is based upon an alleged excessive tax levy by the board of supervisors of said county for the year 1915. The complaint alleges, among other things, as follows:

“(1) That heretofore the board of supervisors of the said county of Graham attempted to levy and assess upon the taxable property in said county certain rates of taxation for [324]*324various county purposes exclusive of taxes for school purposes, and that the taxes at the several rates so fixed by said board of supervisors upon property of the plaintiff in said county for the year 1915 amounted to the sum of $27,663.38; that the taxes so attempted to be levied by the said board of supervisors of the said county of Graham for the year 1915 exclusive of taxes for school purposes, aggregated a total sum of money, exclusive of taxes for school purposes, of more than ten per centum greater in amount than the total sum levied and collected as taxes in said county for _ other than school purposes from all sources during the next year prior to the year 1915, and that the taxes assessed and levied upon the property of the plaintiff in said county exceeding ten per cent greater in amount than the total sum levied and collected for the year prior to the year 1915, and exceeding the taxes that would have been levied and collected at a rate sufficient to produce sums aggregating ten per cent greater than the amount of taxes levied in said.county for other than school purposes for the year 1915, amounted to the sum of $4,361.68. ...”

The complaint further shows that plaintiff, at the time of : paying the half-year taxes, included in such payment one-half of said alleged excessive amount, viz., $2,180.84, but paid •such excessive amount under protest, and by this action is .seeking to recover such sum so paid.

The defendant county demurred to the complaint upon the • grounds that the facts stated are insufficient to constitute a cause of’ action, and answered. The demurrer was overruled.

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Bluebook (online)
170 P. 792, 19 Ariz. 320, 1918 Ariz. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arizona-eastern-railroad-v-county-of-graham-ariz-1918.