Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. v. Territorial Board of Equalization of the Territory

84 P. 511, 9 Ariz. 383, 1906 Ariz. LEXIS 76
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 20, 1906
DocketCivil No. 927
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 84 P. 511 (Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. v. Territorial Board of Equalization of the Territory) 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
Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. v. Territorial Board of Equalization of the Territory, 84 P. 511, 9 Ariz. 383, 1906 Ariz. LEXIS 76 (Ark. 1906).

Opinions

NAYE, J.

The Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company made application that a writ of certiorari should be issued out of this court by an associate justice thereof, directed to the territorial board of equalization, requiring that board to certify certain records to this court, and to show cause why certain acts and proceedings complained of in said application should not be declared void and vacated. Upon the application, on .September 22, 1905, a writ was issued by one of the associate justices, returnable before the full bench of this court on the seventeenth day of November, 1905. On November 16, 1905, petitioner filed in this court its amended application for a writ of certiorari. The board of equalization made return in compliance with the writ, but interposed a demurrer to the amended application. By con[388]*388sent of the parties, expressed in open court, the right of the petitioner to the writ was argued before the full bench upon this demurrer. Therefore, we may with propriety consider the questions raised by demurrer as if no writ had been issued, and determine whether upon the facts set forth in the amended application, thus conceded to be true, the petitioner is entitled to relief.

The salient facts alleged in the application are that the petitioner is tbe owner of real and personal property situated in Cocbise County; that at a session of tbe territorial board of equalization on tbe seventeentb day of August, 1905, that board, while having under examination the various assessments and abstracts of assessment-rolls returned to it from the various counties of the territory, and under consideration the question whether the valuation of property in each county bears a fair relation or proportion to the valuation in all other counties of the territory, did, for the alleged purpose of equalizing the rate of assessment in the various counties, add to the assessed valuation of patented mines in said county of Cochise for the year 1905, fifteen hundred per cent thereof, which was an increase of $3,345,277.05; similarly, did add to tbe valuation of work-borses in said county nineteen per cent thereof, to the valuation of saddle-horses tbirty-one per cent thereof, to tbe valuation of improvements on unpatented mines one thousand per cent; that tbe said board similarly increased the assessed valuation of some special class or classes of property in each and every county of the territory; that thereby the aggregate valuation of property in each and every county of the territory was increased over and above the aggregate valuations of property therein, as fixed by the respective assessors and boards of equalization of the said counties for the year 1905. These increases in aggregate valuations are set forth in the petition in a table showing, increases ranging from $81.87 in Coconino County, to $3,370,216.60 in Cochise County, and showing that the aggregate increased valuation of property in the territory for purposes of taxation of the same, was $9,554,060.29 over and above the sums of the aggregate valuations of the several counties therein, as fixed for the year 1905 by the assessors and boards of equalization of the respective counties and returned to the territorial auditor in the abstracts of assessment-rolls of said counties. Petitioner [389]*389further shows, that the increased valuation of petitioner’s property resulting from the act of the territorial board of equalization is $847,951.

It is contended by the petitioner that the territorial board of equalization, in performing the acts alleged, exceeded its jurisdiction for two reasons: 1. The board of equalization has no power to increase the sum of all the valuations of the several counties of the territory, as fixed and determined by the assessors and boards of the several counties; and 2. The board has no authority to raise or diminish the valuations placed upon different classes of property in any county. At the threshold of the consideration of this case, we meet the contention on the part of the petitioner that the statutes conferring the authority upon the territorial board of equalization, under which it assumed to act, were adopted from the statutes of Colorado; that, in. the case of People v. Lothrop, 3 Colo. 428, these statutes had received an interpretation from the court of last resort of that state, prior to their adoption by the legislature of the territory of Arizona, and that this interpretation was to the effect that under these statutes the state board of equalization of Colorado had no power to increase the sum of all the valuations of the several counties, as fixed by the assessors and boards of equalization of the several counties; but that this sum must be taken as the aggregate valuation of all the property in the state, and is conclusive and final as against the said board of equalization. If this contention is well founded, this demurrer must be overruled; for under such circumstances it will be presumed that .the legislature of Arizona adopted the statute of Colorado with the interpretation given to it in that state. Henrietta Mining Co. v. Gardner, 173 U. S. 123, 19 Sup. Ct. 327, 43 L. Ed. 637; Goldman v. Sotelo, 8 Ariz. 85, 68 Pac. 558.

It appears that paragraphs 3877 and 3879 of the Revised Statutes of 1901 (which are a re-enactment of paragraphs 2655 and 2657 of the Revised Statutes of 1887) are in large portion, if not in all material points, identical respectively with paragraphs 2279 and 2281 of the General Laws of Colorado of 1877. Paragraph 3880 of the Revised Statutes of 1901 (a re-enactment of paragraph 2658 of the Revised Statutes of 1887) is the particular paragraph which we must interpret, and is as follows:—

[390]*390“3880 (Sec. 50). The said board shall ascertain whether the valuation of property in each county bears a fair relation or proportion to the valuation in all other counties in the territory, and on such examination they may increase or diminish the valuation of property in any county, as much as in their judgment may be necessary to produce a just relation between all the valuations of property in the territory; but in no instance shall they reduce the aggregate valuation as returned by the boards of supervisors of the several counties. And said board shall at the same time fix the rate of taxes for territorial purposes which is to be levied and collected in each county.”

Paragraph 2282 of the General Laws of Colorado of 1877, from which it is contended that we adopted the paragraph just set out, is as follows:—

“2282 (Sec. 43). Said board shall ascertain whether the valuation of real estate in each county bears a fair relation or proportion to the valuation in all other counties of the state, and on such examination they may increase or diminish the aggregate valuation of real estate in any county, as much as in their judgment may be necessary to produce a just relation between all the valuations of real estate in the state; but in no instance shall they reduce the aggregate valuation of all the counties below the aggregate valuation as returned by the clerks of the several counties'.”

The material differences in phraseology of the two paragraphs we have indicated by italics.

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Bluebook (online)
84 P. 511, 9 Ariz. 383, 1906 Ariz. LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copper-queen-consolidated-mining-co-v-territorial-board-of-equalization-ariz-1906.