Blomquist v. Board of County Commissioners

137 P. 174, 25 Idaho 284, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 34
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 137 P. 174 (Blomquist v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blomquist v. Board of County Commissioners, 137 P. 174, 25 Idaho 284, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 34 (Idaho 1913).

Opinions

SULLIVAN, J.

This is an application by the tax commission of the state for a writ of mandate to the board of county commissioners of Bannock county, sitting as a board of equalization for Bannock county, to compel said board to equalize the taxes of Franklin & Hays in the amounts fixed by an order made by said Idaho tax commission, and to compel them to comply with said order in all respects.

Upon the application of said tax commission, the alternative writ of mandate was issued and the said board made due return thereto, and the cause came on for hearing before this court upon the petition and affidavit and motion to quash interposed by the defendants.

Briefly, the facts are as follows: N. G-. Franklin and R. J. Hays -constituted a partnership doing business in Pocatello, Bannock county. The property of the partnership was assessed by the assessor-of said county for taxes for the year ■1913, as follows: Improvements situated upon Block 39, $15,000; machinery, $5,000. Thereafter ■ application was made to said board of equalization for a reduction in this valuation, with the result that the board refused to reduce the assessment as to the improvements but reduced the [290]*290assessment on machinery to $3,000, making the total assessment as equalized $18,000 on said improvements and machinery. Said partnership then filed their complaint with the Idaho tax commission, the plaintiffs herein, after which a hearing was had where all parties interested appeared, and evidence was taken before said commission as to the actual cash value of said property, and upon consideration of such evidence the commission entered an order which was duly •served upon the defendants, a part of which order is as follows:

“It is therefore ordered that the order of the said Board of Equalization reducing the valuation of said machinery to the sum of $3,000.00 and their refusal and neglect to reduce the valuation fixed by the Assessor upon the brewery building aforesaid, be and the same is hereby set aside and declared erroneous, and of no effect.
“It is further ordered that the said Board of Equalization consisting of Meyers Cohn, George Gittins, and W. B. Wright, be, and they are hereby directed that immediately upon receiving notice of this order, to enter upon the assessment-roll of the said Bannock County, State of Idaho, or cause to be entered thereon in accordance with the statute in such cases provided, the valuation of the aforesaid improvements upon said lots at the sum of $10,000.00 and the machinery above referred to at the sum of $1000.00 and that when such change in said assessment shall have been made as herein directed, the same shall become the equalized assessment of said property, upon which shall be computed the taxes to be paid by the said owner of said property for the year-1913.”

The board of equalization of Bannock county refused to comply with said order so made, and the Idaho tax commission now seeks in this proceeding to compel said board to comply with said order.

The constitutionality of the act of the legislature creating the Idaho tax commission and providing for its organization ■and defining its powers and duties, etc. (Sess. Laws 1913, p. 167), is raised by this proceeding, and if it be determined [291]*291that said act is constitutional, then the question of the duties of said tax commission is also raised.

It is contended by counsel for the tax commission that said act was intended to give plenary powers to said commission, as set forth in sec. 8 of the act, which section is as follows:

“The commission shall supervise the administration of all laws relating to the assessment of property, and the levy, collection, apportionment and distribution of taxes, and shall exercise power and authority to enforce all such laws, and in so doing shall oversee all boards of assessment, boards of equalization and all officers upon whom any duties devolve under the revenue laws of this state, and require all such boards and officers to perform the duties imposed upon them by such laws, and may examine all books, records and accounts of such boards and officers, and require such boards and officers to furnish the commission such records, data and information as may be had from the records in their several offices and as the commission may deem necessary.”

It will be observed from the provisions of said section that it does not confine the supervision and administrative powers of the tax commission to any one department or feature in the levy, collection, apportionment or distribution of taxes, but makes its powers in this respect general so as to cover all features of the revenue laws of the state providing for the assessment, levy, collection, apportionment and distribution of taxes. It is clear that if the provisions of said section must be so construed as to run counter to, or be in conflict with, any of the provisions of our constitution in regard to the assessment, collection, etc., of taxes, then said act must be held to be in violation of the constitution; but if the duties imposed upon said board by said act do not take away from or impinge upon the duties of the constitutional officers who are authorized to assess, equalize, collect and distribute taxes, then said act is not in conflict with the constitution and is valid.

The direct question at issue in this case is: Has the tax commission power to compel a comity board of equalization [292]*292to adopt its views in equalizing the value of certain property for taxation 1 The assessor is required to assess the property in his county at its actual cash value according to his honest opinion and best judgment, and if the opinion of the tax commission is different from that of the assessor, the tax commission cannot compel the assessor to change such assessment and make it conform to the opinion of the tax commission. And so with the board of equalization. It has certain discretion in the equalization of the values placed upon property within its county by the assessor, and while the tax commission has full power and authority to consult and advise with the board of equalization in regard to the true cash value of the property sought to be equalized, they have no power or authority under said act to compel the board of equalization to equalize according to the commission’s views rather than its own, so long as the officer or board performs the duties imposed by law and acts in good faith and according to his best judgment and discretion.

The words “assessor” and county “board of equalization” as used in the constitution, carry with them the powers usually conferred upon officers or boards of like names. Under see. 6, art. 18, of the constitution, it is essential that the assessment of property located wholly within a county shall be made by the assessor elected by the voters of the county, and if the assessor has no discretion in placing a value upon the property assessed, he is nothing more than a listing officer, without any power to assess property at its cash or any other value according to his best judgment or legal discretion. It may be said that the duties devolving upon the assessor and county board of equalization can still be performed, but such duties are no more than émpty forms if appointive boards and officers desire to act and fix values and do so act. The fact that it is left entirely to the judgment of such appointive boards and officers as to whether or not they will act is not controlling.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 P. 174, 25 Idaho 284, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blomquist-v-board-of-county-commissioners-idaho-1913.